“UBS‘s Steve Milunovich this afternoon reiterates a Buy rating on shares of Apple (AAPL), and a $125 price target, writing that a third-party survey suggests better results in the December quarter for iPhone 6 sales than he’d previously estimated,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s.
“According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, or CIRP, which ‘surveys 500 screened US Apple buyers each quarter,’ all of them in the U.S., writes Milunovich, the latest data from the December quarter showed a rise mix of iPhone 6 among purchases, and in particular, the higher-capacity models,” Ray reports. “As a result of the bullish data, Milunovich is modeling 67 million iPhone units sold in the December quarter, at an average selling price of $685, above the Street consensus he identifies as 65.5 million units at $680.”
“He models Apple turning in $70.17 billion in revenue, with a 38.2% gross profit, for EPS of $2.67. That compares to Street consensus for $67.18 billion, 38.5% gross margin and $2.58 per share,” Ray reports. “Mind you, Milunovich models Apple selling fewer iPads — 22 million versus the Street’s 25 million.”
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