Here's What Wall Street Is Saying About Apple's Earnings Report
The last 24 hours have been big for Apple Inc. Not only did the world’s largest technology firm report earnings, but its most important product in years finally hit store shelves.
Analysts were hoping not only for strong results, but also strong guidance. Supported by resurgent iPad and Mac sales, the 10-year anniversary iPhone will help push revenue to a record high of $84 billion to $87 billion in the quarter ending in late December, Apple said in a statement. Analysts had predicted $84 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The shares rose about 3 percent in extended trading on Thursday. If the stock nears that level on Friday, Apple will be within reach of a $900 billion market capitalization, solidifying its status as the world’s most valuable public company.
Despite not getting as much color on the demand for the iPhone X as hoped, Wall Street is pleased with the report. Here’s a wrap.
Citigroup, Jim Suva
“We were surprised by how Apple beat revenues and earnings-per-share expectations Thursday night as older and lower priced iPhone models held up much better than expected as consumers await the iPhone X. This is important because most of these sales are to new Apple users who in the future will likely purchase apps and other Apple services and eventually upgrade to newer models.”
“We are increasing our financial model slightly as detailed in this report as well as adjusting our valuation multiple to 15 times from 13.5 times as the entire equity market has increased in valuation and as a result we increase our target price to $200 from $170 previously and reiterate our Buy rating.”
Loup Ventures, Gene Munster
“Tim Cook is giddy, and he should be. This was the first time since December 2014 that Apple had growth in every product and every geography. Apple’s results for September 2017 were generally as expected with two bright spots. First, Services growth was up 24 percent, an acceleration from 22 percent in June 2017 and above Street expectations of 17 percent. Second, mainland China grew 12 percent year-over-year.”
