This was the week analysts stumbled over each other to raise their price targets on Apple prior to next Wednesday’s earnings report. Will this create a “sell the news” effect?
Here are the week’s top stories, aggregated from 24/7 Wall St. partner Apple Investor News:
• Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey said Apple’s FY Q2 would come in at $8 billion, the high end of the company’s guidance range. Bailey maintains a neutral rating and raised his price target from $105 to $125.
• Our favorite AAPL analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, did his own Apple store retail checks and estimates this quarter’s Mac sales at 2.2 million units, iPods at 10 million units, and 3.7 million to 4.4 million iPhones. Munster maintains his $180 target.
• Other analysts: Broadpoint raises price target to $135; Caris & Co. raises to $150; Kaufman Bros. raises to $152.
• Gartner Inc. says Q1 U.S. market share for the Mac is down to 7.4% from a high of 8% the last quarter of 2008.
• Rumor of the week: MacRumors uncovered two new Apple iPhone patents: one that uses its accelerometer so simple motions can trigger interface choices; another has a front-facing camera, possibly for live video chats.
• Small product, big margins: research firm iSuppli says the new iPod Shuffle only costs $21.77 to produce, which is 28% of the product’s retail cost. Now that’s a profit margin.
• Rumors of a 10-inch tablet Mac simply won’t die in Apple fan sites. Computerworld speculates that Steve Jobs is working on this product from home as he recuperates.
Frank Cioffi, Apple Investor News.
(full disclosure: Cioffi owns AAPL shares)
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