Analyst says iPod shipments on track

Apple's iPod sales should be strong in the March quarter, despite reports to contrary. Analyst firm Piper Jaffray cautioned that that Apple investors should be wary of recent supplier news suggesting a negative outlook for iPod sales and reiterated its "outperfom" rating on Apple stock with a price target of $103, according to Forbes. Last week Goldman Sachs warned that shipments for iPods may drop at least one million units in the first half of 2006, despite positive reports of strong iPod sales from other anlaysts. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster said he also expects strong iPod sales: "Our preliminary analysis of iPod unit shipment data from NPD leads us to believe that Apple is on track to meet or slightly exceed our iPod unit assumptions and be primarily in line with Street numbers," wrote analyst Gene Munster in a research note today.

Munster said that while some of the datapoints appear to be painting a more negative picture of iPod sales, it was looking to actual sales. "We believe a better indicator is actual data that [are] directly applicable and have a history of correlating highly with actual iPod shipments, such as point-of-sale monthly NPD data," Munster wrote in a note to clients.

Piper Jaffray's preliminary forecast for March-quarter iPod sales is 9 million, based on January data points, according to the report.

Filed under: iPod