Sales of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 12 exceeded Wedbush’s “optimistic outlook” for fiscal year 2021, based on Asian supply chain checks, and are expected to increase stocks with December results coming soon, he wrote analyst Dan Ives in a note on Thursday. “We believe that Apple saw a robust Christmas / Christmas not only on iPhones, but also had a strong performance from AirPods that will be another product on the way to 2021 for Cook & Co,” wrote Ives. Asia checks suggest that the supply chain expects low to mid 90 million iPhone units built for the quarter, comfortably ahead of the 80 million to mid 80’s expected in mid-December, 75 million expected in late October and 65 million to 70 million range expected three months ago, he wrote. “This is an increase of approximately 35% over our original and Street forecasts. For the quarter of March, we believe that the builds for the total of iPhones increased by another 5% again last week and are now in the range of 60 million to 70 million. For June quarter, we believe that initial builds are in the 40 million range, with the potential for a bullish bias. We have not seen a bullish launch trend like this in several years for Apple and the only similar trajectory for the iPhone. would be the iPhone 6 in 2014 based on our analysis, “said Ives. The Wall Street consensus is 217 million units sold from the iPhone in fiscal 2021, but Wedbush sees potential for up to 240 million units “, which would easily eclipse Apple’s previous record of 231 million units sold in the FY15. Importantly, with our estimate of 350 million of the 950 million iPhones worldwide are currently in the window of an update opportunity, we believe this will translate into an unprecedented update cycle for Cook & Co., “said Ives. Wedbush ranks Apple as a top performer, with a price target of $ 160 for 12 months and a high cash target of $ 200. Apple shares were up 0.5% ahead of the market and up 82% in 2020, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
gained 6.6% and the S&P 500 SPX,
gained 15.5%.
