Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has just received a price target cut from analysts at Sterne Agee just ahead of tomorrow’s calendar first-quarter earnings report. The analysts also trimmed their estimates for the company and say that the company’s guidance may not be as conservative as Wall Street is expecting. Barclays analysts also cut their price target for shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) over the last couple of days.
In a report issued to investors this morning, Stern Agee analyst Shaw Wu said they trimmed their price target from $630 per share to $610 per share. They continue to rate shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as a buy, but they’ve trimmed their June quarter estimates from $40 billion to $38.8 billion in revenue and from $9.73 to $9.38 in earnings per share.
They left their estimates for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s March quarter unchanged at $10 in earnings per share on $41.3 billion in revenue. Wu said they believe Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will likely miss on expectations for its March quarter. However, they believe that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s data points may have finally hit bottom, which is precisely what investors have been waiting for.
The analysts trimmed their iPhone forecast from 30 million to 28 million for the June quarter. They left their iPad forecast at 19.8 million and their Mac forecast at 4 million. They said the iPad Mini’s momentum is strong, but it’s being offset by the weakening iPad 4 trend. They predict that we’ll soon see the point where the iPad Mini outsells the iPad. In terms of Mac sales, they said their checks show that demand is better than seasonally expected, thanks to better availability and also yields from the new iMac.
As of the moment of this writing, shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) were up 1.55 percent since opening bell. They’re approaching the $400 per share mark again.
