Forget all the doom predictions about Apple — according to Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White, the company may have just had its best January since 2008.
Although Apple itself has said that iPhone sales are likely to fall for the first time ever in the January quarter, White claims that his own analysis of Apple’s suppliers suggests that things are looking far from bleak.
“All of the companies in our Apple Monitor (i.e., basket of Apple suppliers in Taiwan) have reported January sales and the performance was much better than typical seasonality,” he writes. “After the weakest December on record for our Apple Monitor, this was the best January since 2008. Given the significant underperformance for our Apple Monitor in November and December, we are pleased to see this strong outperformance in January.”
The January quarter is always Apple’s weakest, marking a considerable slide from the hot holiday quarter. With that said, if Drexel Hamilton’s advice is to be believed, Apple is setting expectations purposely low en route to breezing past Wall Street’s predictions.
We won’t know for sure until Apple finally posts its results for the January – March quarter, but White is certainly bullish on Apple. With stock currently trading at $94 per share, he has a price target of $200 for AAPL and calls it “one of the best [value stocks] in the tech world.”
Source: Business Insider
