Apple Gets Positive Comments from Two Major Investment Companies

by , 6:10 PM EST, February 21st, 2007

Apple is viewed in a very positive way by investment firms Bear Stearns and Prudential according to Notable Calls on Wednesday. Bear Stearns is maintaining their outperform rating at target share price of US$130. They predict a 2Q earnings per share of US$0.65 and revenues of US$5.2B with sales of 1.4M Macs and 11.2M iPods.

Apple has changed the way they're entering these new markets with the iPhone and Apple TV. In previous times, Apple would would make a surprise announcement, the product would look as if it would create a big hit, but as market realities sunk in, investors would pull back. Now, Apple is pre-announcing in new markets and getting enormous feedback before the product ships.

Notable Calls reported, "... we now have some more visibility about where Apple is going with four "spheres" -- PCs, music, phones soon, and video next year (they think). And each of these spheres has four vectors of expansion -- platforms, wireless, storage, software -- although these spheres overlap with consistent software and user interfaces."

Prudential recently met with Apple's senior management and then checked with the industry regarding Apple's Mac and iPod supply chains. Apple noted that its Education segment is growing faster than its Consumer segment in recent quarters.

Prudential thinks Apple will benefit this quarter thanks to significant decreases in component costs. The earnings per share prediction is US$0.68 based on stronger Mac sales. Their target price is US$100.00

Notable Calls is written by an anonymous Wall Street Professional.