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Apple’s stock continued to rise on Friday.
Sascha Steinbach / Getty Images for Apple
Apple
The stock rose for the fourth consecutive session on Friday, putting it in pace for a record close and reaching an intraday record. Wall Street analysts continue to raise expectations ahead of the company’s December quarter earnings report, which is due after the closing of deals next Wednesday.
The consensus forecast is $ 102.8 billion in revenue and earnings of $ 1.40 per share. The Street is looking for big iPhone sales after the launch of the iPhone 12 line at the end of last year, with continued strength also from Macs, iPads, wearables and services.
On Friday, Cowen analyst Krish Sankar repeated his Outperform rating for Apple shares (ticker: AAPL), raising its target price from $ 133 to $ 153.
Sankar expects the company to exceed expectations for the quarter, both on the top and bottom lines, driven in particular by strong iPhone demand. He is projecting $ 104.5 billion in revenue and earnings of $ 1.46 per share. The analyst estimates that Apple sold 77 million iPhones in the quarter, an increase of 97% sequentially and 7% year after year. He sees iPhone revenue of $ 60.1 billion, an increase of 7% over the previous year, with service revenue growing 26%, to $ 16 billion.
Apple remains Sankar’s top choice in the IT hardware industry for several reasons.
One, he thinks the iPhone 12 update cycle should continue to drive earnings for the 2021 calendar year. Second, he expects the service segment to “remain resilient”, with growth trends in paid subscriptions likely to stay on track – given the new offers like Fitness +. And finally, the contributions of the Mac, iPad and wearables “will remain strong”, with the long-term potential of new areas such as electric vehicles and augmented and virtual reality, he writes.
Apple rose 0.9% to $ 138.12 in recent negotiations. The stock’s previous record close – reached Thursday – was $ 136.87. The intraday peak of the action was 139.67, also recorded on Thursday. In the week, the stock rose about 8.7%.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]