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Bear Stearns Raises Estimates on Apple on iPod Strength

by , 5:30 PM EST, January 21st, 2005

Bear Stearns raised its estimates on Apple Friday. In a research note to clients, Bear Stearns cited stronger iPod and was characterized as "less of a seasonal decline" in hard drive iPod sales for the Mac quarter. The firm raised its 12 month target to US$97, up from $87, and boosted estimates from 43 cents per share to 48 cents per share for the quarter.

Revenue estimates were bumped from US$2.99 billion to $3.17 billion. Apple's own guidance for the quarter is 40 cents per share profit on revenue of $2.9 billion.

According to a Forbes report, Bear Stearns said that "feedback from sources, including iPod component vendors such as Synaptics, PortalPlayer, Seagate Technology and Toshiba, and MP3 vendors such as Creative Technology, 'seem to suggest an expectation for less than normal seasonal declines in the HDD-based iPod business for Apple and the broader HDD music player category for the March quarter.'"

Bear Stearns' target price of $97 per share is higher than any other Wall Street firm's target price except Piper Jaffray, where analyst Gene Munster has had a $100 per share target for Apple since November of 2004. Other firms covering Apple have price targets in the $75-$85 range.

Throughout 2001 and 2002, Bear Stearns analyst Andrew Neff repeatedly advised and predicted that Apple would move the Mac OS X platform to Intel's line of processors. Since that time, Mr. Neff has backed off those predictions, and Apple has stayed steadfastly with the PowerPC platform.

Apple stock closed at 70.49, a gain of 0.03 (+0.04%), on moderate volume of 16.3 million shares trading hands.

Full Disclosure: Bryan Chaffin owns shares in Apple.


If you are interested in Apple's stock, join our forum members in the Apple Finance Boards, a moderated forum for Apple Investors and people who are interested in Apple's financial dealings. For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Mace Posts: 9346 Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Subject:

Wonder where he got those evidences.

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3079 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

Quote
Mace wrote:
Wonder where he got those evidences.


Wishful thinking on his part. Apple will move to the Intel platform the day they close their doors as a computer manufacturer.

Close Name:macjim Posts: 35 Joined: 23 May 2004
Subject: we need a centrino beater..

Apple's certainly not going to want to go Intel, but the Pentium Mobile is already making mac laptops look comparatively lacklustre, especially in battery life, and their future development looks threatening.
IBM looks good for development of desktop CPUs, lets hope they get the act together for laptops or there could be huge pressure for Apple to go Intel to keep up.

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3079 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

Quote
macjim wrote:
Apple's certainly not going to want to go Intel, but the Pentium Mobile is already making mac laptops look comparatively lacklustre, especially in battery life, and their future development looks threatening.
IBM looks good for development of desktop CPUs, lets hope they get the act together for laptops or there could be huge pressure for Apple to go Intel to keep up.


Again, will never happen. Apple is part of the AIM PPC alliance. Going to Intel will be slitting their own throats.

Consider that the mac laptop line really hasn't been through a refresh in quite a while. They could go one of several ways in the near future, including dual-core G4 or eventually the G5.

The PPC line is really only getting started. x86 is approaching end of life.

Close Name:DawnTreader -   TMO Staff Posts: 14768 Joined: 04 Jan 2002
Subject:

Quote
Intruder wrote:


The PPC line is really only getting started. x86 is approaching end of life.


True. This gives Apple a competitive advantage moving forward because OS X is young in terms of its development life. The installed base of Wintel hardware makes it very difficult for Microsoft to eliminate support for legacy hardware and very difficult for Intel to release commercially viable processors based on a vastly different design into a market that requires integration with existing systems.

Apple will solve the G5 PowerBook challenge within the year.

I've recently purchased a few Wintel laptops for installation in commercial environments. While the technology has gotten better, I wouldn't trade my G4 PowerBook for any of them at this point in time.

Close Name:Mace Posts: 9346 Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Subject:

Quote
DawnTreader wrote:
... The installed base of Wintel hardware makes it very difficult for Microsoft to eliminate support for legacy hardware and very difficult for Intel to release commercially viable processors based on a vastly different design into a market that requires integration with existing systems ...
Agree. Compatibility with legacy is retarding the progress in the WinTel world.

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