Saturday, September 15, 2012

Apple: BMO Ups Target to $460 on Higher iPhone Sales

BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman late yesterday raised his price target on Apple (AAPL) shares by five bucks to $460 after raising his estimates for Apple’s iPhone sales based on what appears to be strong uptake at Sprint-Nextel (S) and Japan’s KDDI.�

Bachman now sees perhaps 29.5 million iPhone units, up from his prior 28-million estimate, with potential for as many as 32 million, writing “based on our conversations with Sprint sales reps, we believe that Apple is benefiting from material upgrades of Sprint subscribers.”

I’d note that numerous analysts have been raising their iPhone estimates for the last couple of months, and 30 million appears to be the average estimate of late.�

Bachman raised his EPS estimate for this quarter ending in December, Apple’s fiscal Q1, to $9.82 from $9.55 a share, and raised his estimate for the full fiscal year from $33.50 to $34.68. Bachman also raised his full-year fiscal 2013 estimate to $39.62 from $38.80.�

Current consensus is $9.83 a share this quarter and $34.79 for the full year. Bachman’s $7.59 estimate for next quarter, he notes, is below the $7.86 average estimate, he notes, which he writes is because he’s expecting somewhat software iPad sales in the March quarter�in advance of the introduction of a new iPad model.�

Apple shares today are up $1.26 at $403.90.

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