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Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani raised his target price of Apple shares from 135 to $ 145.
Mladen Antonov / AFP via Getty Images
Wall Street is getting more optimistic about
Applein
next earnings report.
Earlier this week, I took note of some analyst notes anticipating Apple’s December quarter financial results (ticker: AAPL) and raising its estimates and price targets. Late on Wednesday, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani agreed, repeating his Outperform rating while raising his target share price to $ 145 from $ 135.
As with Canaccord calls at the beginning of the week and
Swiss credit,
Daryanani raised his expectations for the quarter, which is expected to be released in the last week of January. And like his colleagues, he cited strong initial demand for the more sophisticated versions of the iPhone 12.
In boosting estimates, Daryanani points to a better-than-expected combination of unit demand and higher-than-expected average selling prices, as consumer demand tends towards the more sophisticated Pro and Pro Max versions of the new phone line. . He also notes “better service growth”, given a better than 30% growth in downloads from the App Store.
“It is important not only to see demand remain robust in [the December quarter] but also expects the rally to be sustained in [the March quarter], ”Given the extended delivery times for the iPhone 12 Pro and, to a lesser extent, for the Pro Max, he writes.
“The iPhone Pro has been on the market for two and a half months and our analysis suggests that the waiting time remains high in each country we track, with the exception of the United States,” writes Daryanani. He says Apple is offering same-day delivery of the iPhone Pro in the U.S. with special courier delivery that costs an additional $ 10, but that standard delivery still requires a 21-day wait, a modest improvement over the wait of 33 days in early December.
He notes that in China, delivery times for the 12 Pro have dropped from 23 to 16 days – but still, the longest delivery time in history for 10 weeks for any iPhone. He notes that the basic iPhone 12 and the Mini 12 have shorter delivery times in all regions, “which may point to a strong combination of iPhone 12 Pros with higher prices”.
The Evercore analyst surveyed is looking for $ 104 billion in revenue and $ 1.43 per share in quarterly earnings, above the Street consensus of $ 102 billion and $ 1.40 per share. He sees 80 million iPhone units in the quarter, with an average selling price of $ 775.
Apple’s shares rose 1.2% to $ 128.17 in the latest trades. O
S&P 500
rose 0.9%.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]