Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL stock is back up at a level it hasn’t seen in over a year (on a split adjusted basis). This is the first time the company’s shares passed $100 since the seven for one stock split. Analysts from both RBC and Morgan Stanley are touting Apple’s upcoming products. The RBC team thinks the iPhone 6 will be even bigger than anyone thinks, while the Morgan Stanley team expects the iWatch to tap “an underappreciated market opportunity.”
Apple and the iWatch
In her latest report, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said she thinks Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL might ship up to 60 million smart watches in just the very first year. She also expects the rumored iWatch to bring with it a margin that’s greater than 40%, calling the device “an important barometer” of Apple’s ability to innovate while under CEO Tim Cook’s leadership. The analyst adds that because of all these hires, she thinks Cook “now has the bench in place to execute on new product categories.”
She notes that under Cook, the company has added more than a dozen experts in a wide variety of areas, including medical research, fashion and more. Of course Huberty recommends grabbing up some shares of Apple stock ahead of the fall product launches.
Other reasons Apple stock looks good
In addition to the upcoming products, she also sees the current low institutional ownership of Apple as a buying opportunity for investors. Currently Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL stock is only, on average, 2.3% of the portfolios of its top 100 shareholders. That’s about half of what it was two years ago. Also it should be noted that Apple has a 3.4% weighting in the S&P 500 index.
Estimating iPhone 6 shipments
On Monday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani estimated how many iPhone 6 smartphones Apple Inc. NASDAQ:AAPL might sell. The analyst said the company has ordered about 75 million iPhones from its suppliers to be ready in the second half of the year. He notes that this is a significant increase from last year when suppliers made only 50 million to 60 million units.
Daryanani is currently estimating sales of only 65 million units, but of course he suspects that might end up being conservative based on how may iPhone 6 handsets Apple appears to have ordered for this year.
