Lehman Brothers analyst Harry Blount raised his target price for Appleis stock US$30 Monday morning, boosting his earlier $160 price up to $190. Mr. Blount expects Appleis fourth quarter earnings report will reveal strong iPhone sales helped in part by the handheldis recent $200 price reduction.
Mr. Blount commented "We anticipate that Apple will perform better than expectations."
Looking forward, he expects Apple will continue to expand its desktop market share. The company may also see a spike in computer sales in the December quarter thanks to the release of Mac OS X 10.5, or Leopard, which is scheduled to hit store shelves some time in October.
The coming holiday sales season should be good for the Cupertino-based company, too, since the complete iPod product line up was recently updated. Appleis portable media player family now includes a redesigned third generation iPod nano, and the iPhone-like iPod touch.
Mr. Blount has an "Overweight" rating on Appleis stock. Apple is currently trading in the pre-market at $168.45, up 1.1963 (0.72%).
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