“Can we agree on something? Pacific Crest Securities blew it [yesterday] morning and have forever discredited themselves,” Dave Gordon writes for Three28Capital.
Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves “downgrading the stock to ‘sector perform’ giving it a price target between $440 and $550 for the next twelve months. The high-end market for smartphones and tablets are going to be saturated sooner than expected which will lead to poor growth for Apple.” Further, he explained that “demand for incremental hardware improvements is waning and [he doesn’t] believe people will continue to upgrade to a new iPhone.”
“They recommended to their clients that they sell Apple at the absolute low. They were shaken to the ‘core’ (forgive the pun) and downgraded shares of Apple on a faulty assumption,” Gordon writes. “In the short-term, Apple ≠ AAPL. But in the long run, they are one in the same. Technical’s may run the near-term price action, but fundamentals eventually take over.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Andy Hargreaves was admitted yesterday into our “loony bin” for AAPL analysts. That’s right: The Laura Goldman wing.
It’s an open-ended stay during which we predict much public flogging, crow consumption, and other schadenfreudian adventures.
Enjoy your stay, Andy! Like your new jacket?
Related article:
Pacific Crest: Apple’s iPhone business is going to be dead in the water; stock rangebound $440-$550 for next 12 months – January 16, 2013