Piper Jaffray positive after Tiger announcement
updated 01:30 pm EDT, Tue April 12, 2005
Piper Jaffray on Tiger
Piper Jaffray maintains its "outperform" rating for Apple, following the official announcement of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" (Caris & Co today following the announcement). The release "could add slight upside" to June financial results. "Based on Tiger shipment timing, we believe our June quarter software segment estimate is too low and we will likely need to add around 2% to our overall Apple revenue estimate for June." A late April launch will allow for two full months of shipment in the June quarter, according to the firm. Mac OS X "Panther" shipped in late October 2003, with two months remaining in the December quarter, and resulted in a sequential revenue increase of $50 million. "Based on continued strong demand being met by what we expect will be more consistent supply, we believe June quarter guidance will be above Street consensus."
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2001
Underestimating
I think they are underestimating the amount of sales that Tiger will generate.
Upgrades at $129 a pop will bring in some good revenue on their own. The added features and press from the update will also draw more people to Macs.
The big upside, though, is the result of the long lead-time. A number of people have been holding off on buying new Macs while they wait for Tiger to come out. The buzz on the Mac sites is especially that a lot of people will buy a Mac mini once Tiger comes loaded on it.
In other words, to save $129, many people will buy a $500-$3000 system from Apple. That will probably mean a more than 2% revenue increase for this quarter.