Shaw Wu: ‘2006 Will Also See Significant AAPL Innovation, Momentum’

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu on Tuesday issued a new research report in which he said that 2006 "will also see a year of significant AAPL innovation and momentum. We envision more INTC Macs, content partnerships, a new iPod shuffle, a widescreen vPod, and AAPL extending its Mac and iPod + iTunes franchises into the broader consumer electronics space."

Mr. Wu also looked ahead to Appleis earnings conference call on Jan. 18. CEO Steve Jobs already revealed during his Macworld keynote last week that the company had revenue of US$5.7 billion during the previous quarter, with 14 million iPods sold. He expects EPS will be $0.60 and gross margin will be 27.8%, with a March quarter outlook of $4.4 billion in revenue and $0.44 EPS.

He thinks Apple will offer conservative guidance for the current quarter "to keep expectations in check. Moreover, AAPL just reported blow-out December quarter revenue results, making a tough sequential comparison, and the transition to INTC processors is not risk-free." Mr. Wu also speculated that the companyis stock "could pull back on a potential knee-jerk reaction" to such news, "but we would be buyers on weakness."

Mr. Wu reiterated his "Buy" rating on the stock, with a $101 price target. At 12:30 PM EST on Tuesday, Apple shares were selling for $84.06, down 1.79% for the day amid broader weakness in the Nasdaq.