Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope has a “big, bullish note” out on Apple this morning, according to a report in Business Insider. He has raised his price target to $750 from $700 and is telling people to buy ahead of next week’s results:
We believe recent investor concerns over a ‘catalyst-light’ June quarter are misguided, since this will be the first full quarter with a refreshed iPad, a lower-priced iPad 2, and a fully ramped iPhone distribution channel; in other words, the June quarter is when many of the recent catalysts begin to fully manifest into earnings power.”
Shope is bullish about iPad and iPhone results but slightly cautious on Mac growth because of the anticipated upgrades to several models in the range which could be causing buyers to hold off for the time being:
On the Mac side of the equation, we believe growth will be fairly lackluster this quarter, as both sell-in and sell-through pull back ahead of a broad Mac refresh. Indeed, we now believe that annual unit growth will come in at 14%, versus last quarter’s 26% growth. With that said, we believe our estimate is above recently reduced investor expectations, as most seem to be underestimating how much international share gains will counter tepid US growth. Furthermore, we expect any weakness in Mac sales to be more than countered by iPhone and iPad strength this quarter, and we expect growth to accelerate in the June quarter.
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Disclosure: MacFilos holds stock in AAPL.