“Apple’s stronger-than-expected fiscal fourth quarter boosted its stock on Thursday, and has set the tech giant up for further success despite softer sales of its flagship device, according to Wall Street analysts,” Javier E. David for Yahoo Finance:
Although iPhone revenues fell 9% year over year to $33.36 billion, it was stronger than the $32.25 billion expected by analysts.
“Looking into [2020], Apple is in the midst of a perfect storm, with current iPhone performing at-or-above plan, non-iPhone (especially wearables and services) trending better than expected and growing anticipation for 5G iPhones that will be coming late in the fiscal year,” Piper analyst Michael Olson wrote, who raised his price target on the stock to $270 from $243.
MacDailyNews Take: From Michael’s lips to Mr. Market’s ears!
At $253, Apple has certainly exceeded my expectations on earnings. I almost feel sorry for those potential investors who followed the advice of those analysts who had a sell rating on Apple with price targets of $155 or so. Those analysts should be kicked out of their brokerage firms and banned for at least five years until they learn about investing strategy. What the heck were they thinking? Anyone who followed their advice would have lost out on some proper gains.