Apple Inc. (AAPL) Stock Could Touch $700 With These Catalysts

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stocks are trading 25% below their all-time high of $705, but there are some potential catalysts that could boost the shares to those levels once again, says a report from Fool.com by Joe Tenebruso.

Apple iPad Christmas

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) recently launched the next generation iPad Air, which received good initial reviews. The iPad Mini with Retina display was also launched recently with an entry level price of $299, which according to the author is affordable. The author believes that the new devices indicate that Apple will have impressive sales in the upcoming holiday shopping season. Apple CEO Tim Cook said while giving an interview, “I think it’s going to be an iPad Christmas.”

The iPhone maker is looking forward to opening more stores in China over the next two years, increasing its distribution and creating brand awareness. Also, Apple can enter into a deal with China Mobile to sell the iPhone to the latter’s huge subscriber base of around 700 million, which is two times the population of the United States.

Dive into enterprise and business computing

Further, the iPhone maker is looking forward to gaining more traction in the enterprise or corporate segment, a market where Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been the leader for quite a long time offering the Windows operating system. However, the corporate world is now shifting from Microsoft powered PC and related device to Apple’s ecosystem of products. According to Forrester Research, around 18% of employees are using an Apple device for work, which is an increase from 3% a few years back. Apple has been popular amongst the consumers, but is slowly penetrating into the enterprise space, and is also seeing increased business sales.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) recently launched the Mavericks operating system and iWork Suite of productivity software apps, and is offering it to customers free of cost, which stands in direct competition to Microsoft’s Windows and Office dominance. Apple will give a tough fight to Microsoft and its partners by entering into enterprise sector.

Massive cash

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has shelled out billions of cash in the form of buying back shares, and the outstanding shares now stand at 47 million, representing 5% of the total shares outstanding before the launch of the repurchase program. With massive cash at its disposal, Apple can easily boost investor confidence with regular dividends and buybacks.

Also, another catalyst could be an Apple television set, which the company is looking forward to launching, but the road block is the content deals with the providers through which the iPhone maker can offer ad-free contents to the viewers.

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