Ant & Sons Face Off: Is Apple (AAPL) Going Higher?

Analysts face off on the potential of Apple Computers.

(PRWEB) December 24, 2004 -- Shares of the Cupertino, Calif., company have soared this year, climbing from a low of $21.18 in early January to a high for the year of $69.57 late last month. In the past 60 days alone, the shares have gained nearly 70 percent.

Yes: First Albany's Joel Wagonfeld increased his estimates for the company and increased his price target to $72 from $61 previously. Wagonfeld said his increases reflected higher assumptions for both iPods and Apple's Mac computers -- particularly its G5 iMac models. He claimed that, Although expectations are clearly very high at this point, we believe the stock could advance further." Apple will post 2005 earnings of $1.57 per share on sales of $12.3 billion, according to Wagonfeld's revised estimates. Previously, he estimated earnings of $1.37 a share on sales of $10.8 billion. The First Albany analyst said he also expects one more round of upward revisions of consensus estimates.

Yes: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster raised his 12-month price target to $100 from $52, citing a survey conducted by his firm showing that Apple's popular iPod digital music players are helping boost sales of its signature Macintosh computers. "We believe that the remarkable satisfaction with the iPod creates a word-of-mouth wildfire that generates new customer interest in Apple products," he wrote. In a note to clients, Munster wrote that a Piper Jaffray survey of 200 iPod users in the United States found that 6 percent were formerly PC users who had bought a Macintosh computer after their purchase of an iPod.

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