Credit Suisse ups forecast for December quarter
updated 12:30 pm EST, Fri January 15, 2010
Holiday season 'better than expected'
An analyst with Credit Suisse, Bill Shope, has raised his estimates for Apple's December-quarter financial performance. Shope argues that Apple's holiday sales were "better than expected," likely to have pushed iPhones to 9.01 million units instead of 8.75; similarly, Mac estimates have been raised from 3.02 million units to 3.28. Gross margin is expected to be 35.8 percent, higher than Apple's guidance of 34 percent.
Shope's GAAP-based EPS estimate has been set at $2.06, just a penny more than consensus. Non-GAAP EPS -- factoring in revenue from the iPhone and the Apple TV -- is predicted to be $3.36 rather than $3.11. Looking ahead to a possible tablet, the analyst suggests that future quarters could add as much as $1 to non-GAAP EPS.
Credit Suisse is officially maintaining an Outperform rating for Apple stock, with a $250 price target.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2007
Damn! It seems every time they up estimates
for Apple, the stock goes down. It used to be when analysts would upgrade a stock, the stock would at least take a little jump up. Now it goes down. Maybe it's just the hedge funds or institutions causing that to happen so they can buy more shares.