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Apple stock continued its rise Friday.
Sascha Steinbach / Getty Images for Apple
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The stock rose Friday for the fourth consecutive session, which set the pace for a record near and within reach of an intraday record. The Wall Street analyst continues to ratchet up expectations ahead of the company’s earnings report in December, which is available after the trade next Wednesday.
The consensus forecast requires $ 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 series late last year, with continued power of Macs, iPads, laptops and services.
Cowen analyst Krish Sankar reiterated his Outperform rating on Apple (ticker: AAPL) shares on Friday, raising his price target to $ 153 from $ 133.
Sankar expects the company to beat expectations for the quarter in the top and bottom line, especially due to strong iPhone demand. He plans $ 104.5 billion in revenue and a profit of $ 1.46 per share. According to the analyst, Apple sold 77 million iPhones in the quarter, up 97% in a row and 7% higher than in the year. He sees iPhone revenue at $ 60.1 billion, 7% higher than a year ago, with service revenue rising 26% to $ 16 billion.
Apple remains Sankar’s best choice in the IT hardware sector for several reasons.
One, he believes that the upgrade cycle of the iPhone 12 will still have to rise to the earnings of the calendar year 2021. Two, he expects the service segment to ‘remain resilient’, with the growing trends for paid subscriptions likely to stay afloat – given new offers like Fitness +. And lastly, contributions from Mac, iPad and portable materials will ‘stay strong’, with long-term potential from new areas such as electric vehicles and augmented and virtual reality, he writes.
Apple rose 0.9% in recent trading to $ 138.12. The stock’s previous record – which was reached on Thursday – was $ 136.87. The stock’s intraday peak was 139.67, which was also recorded on Thursday. For the week, the stock rose about 8.7%.
Write to Eric J. Savitz by [email protected]