“Many a market rally has been built on the strength of one word: China. But as Apple [AAPL] strikes a deal with that country’s — and the world’s — largest wireless carrier by subscribers, investors should be wary of overplaying it,” Dan Gallagher reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple shares rose more than 1% Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported that it had finally signed a deal with China Mobile, which may enable the iPhone to launch on its network around Dec. 18,” Gallagher reports. “That puts the stock up nearly 10%, or about $46 billion in market value, over the past two weeks as rumors of the impending launch swirled. At $572, the stock is now in positive territory for the year, though not back to the more than $700 seen before the launch of the iPhone 5 in September 2012.”
“China Mobile had 759 million wireless subscribers at the end of October. Verizon Wireless had just 88 million in the first quarter of 2011, when it first started selling the iPhone, and it sold about 4.5 million of them in the first two quarters after launch,” Gallagher reports. “China Mobile’s impact doesn’t seem to be factored into most analysts’ current forecasts. The consensus estimate has Apple’s revenue rising just 5% in the December quarter—which also includes the launch of new iPads and the first full quarter of the iPhone 5S—and 4% for the March quarter, which would include the bulk of the China Mobile launch. Rising estimates could provide some additional lift for the stock in coming weeks, along with Carl Icahn’s newly stated plan to push for a bigger buyback.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]