Are Wall Street analysts being too aggressive expecting Apple to report 8.5 million iPhones sold during the fiscal third quarter? One believes so, suggesting to investors they wait until the fourth quarter for real gangbuster sales figures. Indeed, Kaufman Brothers’ Shaw Wu cut his third quarter iPhone sales projection by 1.5 million units.
“We are shifting our iPhone assumptions to latter quaters due to the high likelihood that an inventory drawdown and screen supply constraints could impact near-term shipments over the next two quarters,” he wrote in a Tuesday note. We believes “most Street estimates have not factored this in and thus we believe consensus at 8.5 million iPhones for the June quarter may likely prove too aggressive.”
While this isn’t the first time Apple has introduced a new model of its iconic handset, the analyst believes this summer’s introductions of the iPhone 4 and an 8GB iPhone 3GS will be “more impactful” than the past two iPhone updates. “With the new storage capacity, this is not as simple as taking the previous product and marking the price down,” Wu advised.
However, for the fourth quarter, the analyst has a brighter outlook. He raised fourth quarter iPhone sales to 10.5 million units, up from 10.3 million. For the iPad, no problems appear on the horizon. Wu expects Apple will sell 3.5 million units, up from his previously projected 3.3 million.
Overall, We inched up his target price for Apple stock to $349 per share from $342.
Apple is expected to report third-quarter numbers in two weeks.
[Fortune]
