“FBR & Co.’s Daniel Ives, who two weeks ago cut estimates for Apple’s iPhone sales, but came to the defense of the stock, this morning responds to overnight fears about Asia’s economic health, writing that ‘bearish sentiment has swung too far,'” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s.
“Ives acknowledges that for Apple investors, it has been ‘a miserable, dark period over the past few months’ that ‘is showing no signs of abating as the combination of 6s growth concerns and China fears this morning are further fueling the bonfire around Apple’s stock heading into 2016,'” Ray reports. “Looking past the gloom, Ives thinks estimates are now low enough for iPhone for the company to meet or beat expectations for the December, March and June quarters.”
We believe bearish sentiment has swung too far now as Cook has a relatively low iPhone unit bar for the dreaded March and June quarters in the countdown to the mega iPhone 7 product cycle slated for September. With our initial read on the December quarter/ holiday season coming in relatively strong, we believe Apple should be able to hit the Street’s iPhone forecasts for F1Q and that March/June estimates are now achievable with supply chain data points. We believe Apple represents a compelling risk/reward and would be buyers. — Daniel Ives, FBR & Co. analyst
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The only question is how much farther can they push the buoy down?
AAPL is like a buoy. Quick, it’s back on the surface! You there, analyst, and you, too, swim down and tug on the chain! Drag it under… lower, lower… Good! Now, quick, everybody jump on, and we’ll take a ride back up to the top again! — MacDailyNews Take, January 9, 2012
At the most basic level, it’s extremely simple: Pump, then dump. Foment, then buy. Rinse, lather, repeat as the SEC sleeps.