As Apple (AAPL) stock price hit new highs, institutional investors remain bullish on this company.
As of August 21, the mean of price target in the next 12 months of the institutional analysts on Apple stock price is $738.76, more than 11% higher than the closing price of $665.15. Among these analysts, Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets predicts Apple stock price would reach $111,1 within the next 12 months. Nearly 90% of the analysts initiated coverage on Apple stock, give a “buy” rating on this stock, and five analysts set “hold” rating, while only two analysts set a “sell” rating.
After Apple took the crown of the company with the largest market cap in the history of U.S. stock market. An analyst at Barclays Capital reaffirmed the “Overweight” rating on this stock on December 21 and set a 12-month target price of $750.
Earlier, the Wall Street investment bank Jeffery securities analyst Peter Misek raised the stock price target on Apple from $800 to $900, and maintained the “buy” rating. Misek showed great optimism on the launch of iPhone 5 and predicted the production of iPad would increase to 25.0 million units from a year ago’s 18 million units in the third quarter and reach 30 million units in the fourth quarter.
JP Morgan maintained the “overweight” rating on Apple in the latest report and pointed out that Apple might set off a TV revolution, citing the news that Apple will enter into the set-top box market. But JP Morgan is relatively cautious over Apple stock price recently. At the end of June, the investment bank cut stock price target on Apple from $715 to $695, the first time cut over the past three years. On July 25, 2012, JP Morgan further lowered the price target to $675, given the weak IT spendings in Europe, Middle East and Africa regions as well as the growth uncertainty of the Chinese market. JP Morgan pointed out that the iPhone’s strong sales momentum will offset the sales downturn of iPad and Mac to some extent.
On the basis of the closing price on Tuesday, or August 21, 2012, Apple’s market capitalization reached $623.52 billion, while Microsoft (MSFT) had a market capitalization of approximately $257.71 billion; Google (GOOG) had a market capitalization of approximately $ 222.35 billion; Facebook (FB) whas a market capitalization of approximately $41.05 billion; Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) had a market capitalization of approximately $39.61 billion; Dell (DELL) had a market capitalization of approximately $22.05 billion. Calculating by this, the market capitalization of Apple had exceeded the total market cap amount of the five technology giants.