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
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Sorry, haters! Signs point to a massive January for Apple”
Brian White is a well-known Apple cheerleader and he’s usually well out of touch with reality as far as Apple is concerned. Apple never comes close to his target prices. Even now his target price is more than twice of Apple’s current worth. That’s just ridiculous. Apple’s share price isn’t going to move up this year because White is one of the few analysts that see any value in buying Apple. The big investors think Apple is poison and won’t touch the stock. I’m only telling loyal Apple shareholders they shouldn’t get their hopes up based on Brian White’s predictions. The F.A.N.G. stocks are going to continue to make Apple look pathetic in terms of gains. Those are the Wall Street darling companies and Apple simply can’t compare with them. Apple isn’t going to reward any new investors this year and will likely disappointment loyal shareholders all of 2016.
His target price is clearly over the top, but everything else is spot on. Surely there’s a limit to how long the market can continue to disregard superb financial performance.