Apple price target slashed to $530 at Nomura
January 15, 2013, 9:19 AM
Debate over Apple’s future stock moves continued apace Tuesday with Nomura analysts slashing their price target while Gabelli & Co. called the stock “an attractive investment opportunity.”
Nomura analysts cut their estimates for iPhone sales and slashed their price target on Apple AAPL -0.62% shares to $530 Tuesday from $660.
Analysts Stuart Jeffrey and Woo Jin Ho at Nomura said the move was made “to reflect weaker-than-expected sales of the iPhone 5 as indicated by our checks.”
Nomura cut its iPhone unit sales estimates by 2 million to 48 million for the December quarter, by 4 million to 39 million for the March quarter and by 9 million to 157 million for the full year. Nomura raised its unit forecasts for iPad sales by 1.8 million to 21 million for first fiscal quarter, by 2.4 million to 20.6 million for the second quarter and by 9.7 million to 89.6 million for the full year.
The analysts wrote that they continue to believe that iPhone margins are “unsustainably high and will fall. While the timing and extent of any decline is still uncertain, we retain our conviction that margins will fall.”
They added that “our analysis suggests that realistic downside risk is potentially down to around $400, with possible upside to about $660. ”
Apple faces a growing problem in Asia, according to the analysts:
“We believe that Apple has to launch a pre-paid iPhone in order to retain relevance in emerging markets. Android is becoming so dominant in Asia that it is attracting the majority of application development. If Apple does not compete, then it will be trying to sell the iPhone at a premium price despite having an inferior hardware specification (e.g., screen size) and inferior application ecosystem.”
Meanwhile, at Gabelli & Co., research analyst Hendi Susanto wrote: “We continue to see an attractive investment opportunity in Apple and recommend purchase. AAPL shares are trading at 5.5x and 11.4x our FY 2013 EBITDA and EPS estimates of $65 billion and $48.00, respectively.”
Apple is slated to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Jan. 23. |
发表于 2013-1-15 10:32
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