Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) price target has been raised from $560.00 to $565.00 by BMO Capital Markets analysts, according to a research note published on Friday. The BMO analysts maintained their Outperform rating on the company. The new price target represents a potential upside of 4.86% from the current share price.
EPS estimate also raised
The analysts at BMO Capital view Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s valuation as attractive, and the best case scenario for the company is expected in the $635 range, and the worst case scenario is around $470. The report also raised the EPS target for the Cupertino based firm to $10.23 from $10.16.
“We are raising our EPS estimates on Apple, driven by aggressive share buybacks. Apple repurchased approximately $14 billion worth of stock, and we assume that the share count declines by around 22 million, to 880 million shares in the March quarter,” the BMO analysts said, and added that they expect total share repurchases of around $35 billion in 2014 and 2015, versus $40 billion over the last 12 months.
Apple has a consensus rating of Buy
A number of other analysts have also come out with their opinions about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares over the past couple of week. In a note on March 27th, analysts at Jefferies Group maintained a Buy rating on the iPhone maker. UBS AG analysts initiated coverage on Apple shares with a research note on March 24th, and placed a price target of $625 on the stock. In a research note on March 25th, analysts at UBS AG maintained their Buy rating on the Apple.
Presently, two analysts have Sell rating on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares, ten have a Hold rating, twenty-nine analysts have given the stock a Buy and one has a Strong Buy recommendation to the stock. Overall, Apple has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $592.81.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has also witnessed a sharp decline in the short interest since the month of January. On March 14th, total short positions in the company were 20,621,174 shares, which is a decline of 10.3% from the February 28th total of 22,980,397 shares. Around 2.3% of the company’s stocks are sold short.
In a transaction disclosed, in a legal filing with the SEC, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) SVP Daniel Riccio, on March 27th, sold 3,064 shares on the open market at an average price of $537.66, for a total value of $1,647,390.24.
