A light week, but still some interesting news-bits, from 24/7 Wall St. partner Apple Investor News:
• Analyst Comment: Kaufman Bros.’ Shaw Wu reiterated his Buy rating on AAPL and upped his price target to $160 from $152.
• Analyst Comment 2: Susquehana’s Jeff Fidacaro, formerly the PC analyst at Merrill Lynch, initiated coverage of Apple with a Positive rating and $155 price target.
• Apple announced that a team of its execs will present at the big developers conference (WWDC) in early June, led by Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide product marketing. Perhaps this was released to quiet rumors that Steve Jobs might make an appearance; he’s scheduled to come back in July.
• Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster said he thinks Apple will announce a second event after WWDC to announce new iPhones; he said this would coincide with Jobs’ return.
• This comment has some validity, as Apple started selling iPhones direct from its website recently, perhaps in an attempt to clear existing inventory. Previously you had to go to a physical Apple store or an AT&T store for purchase and activation.
• Noted money manager Laszlo Birinyi told Bloomberg Apple is “one of the highest quality companies” to buy in this “current rally.”
• Apple dominance in education got a PR boost this week when University of Missouri’s Journalism School mandated that all new students must have an iPhone or iPod Touch, mainly used for relaying course materials. 50 U.S. colleges and universities make use of iPods or Touch software for their curriculum needs.
Frank Cioffi, Apple Investor News.
(full disclosure: Cioffi owns AAPL shares)
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