Goldman Sachs puts AAPL on 'conviction buy' list

Financial firm Goldman Sachs has added Apple stock to its "conviction buy" list, Reuters writes. This is based largely on expectations for the 3G iPhone, which the firm agrees will launch next month, and contribute substantially to Apple's profits. Sachs analyst David Bailey has correspondingly raised the stock target for Apple from $185 to $220, and suggests that Apple will be able to increase the number of iPhone users by 80 percent this year, due to expansion to a larger number of countries through carriers such as Vodafone and Orange.

"We continue to expect Apple to beat its 10 million unit goal for calendar year 2008 driven by broader global distribution and the availability of third-party applications," Bailey notes, "which should keep Apple well ahead of the competition." The analyst predicts that worldwide iPhone sales will amount to 11 million in 2008, a contrast from the 3.7 million sold in 2007.

Sales of Macs are meanwhile expected to remain a driving revenue factor. "We also expect Apple to continue to drive Mac unit growth 3 times the PC market this year," says Bailey.

Filed under: iPhone, Investor, Apple