BofA: Apple sees slow Jan sales
updated 02:00 pm EST, Thu February 23, 2006
BOC retains \"neutral\" AAPL
Banc of America (BOC) Securities analyst Keith Bachman today maintained a "neutral" rating and an $82 price target on Apple, following the release of low January sales results. "While we have concerns about CPU growth in the March quarter, we believe that the month of January will be worse than the quarter," the analyst wrote. "We think the January NPD data exaggerates CPU slowdown." Apple's revenue and units for the month of January grew only one percent and six percent year-over-year, respectively, compared to 25 percent and 20 percent revenue and unit growth in the December quarter, according to Forbes.com. The analyst noted that the new iMacs did not ship until January 10th, and that the MacBook Pros only began shipping February 13-14th.
"We believe that the stock will trade well into product announcements next week, which we believe will include low-end notebook," Bachman said in a report obtained by Forbes.
