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| Apple Stock |
The morning gains lifted a cloud that has hung over Apple's shares for the past month as concerns about availability of the iPad 2 and supply-chain worries stemming from the earthquake in Japan have weighed on the stock. The stock had slipped nearly 6% in the first half of April before starting to pick up earlier this week.
Late Wednesday, Apple reported a 95% surge in earnings for the March quarter, powered primarily by sales of the iPhone. The device saw unit sales more than double to 18.65 million, and revenue from that business line now accounts for half of Apple's total revenue.
"In our view, Apple is the magical growth story in large-cap tech," Mark Moskowitz of J.P. Morgan wrote in a note to clients Thursday morning, saying that Apple's results have gotten "too big to ignore," marked by 83% revenue growth in the quarter.
Moskowitz kept his price target on the stock at $450. Apple shares were recently at $349.78.
Several brokers raised their price targets on Apple's stock. Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray lifted his target to $554 from $483 following the results of what he described as "another monster quarter."
"We believe Apple's true growth rate is sustainable at 20%-plus over the next four years, driven by iPhone and iPad," Munster wrote.
While the iPhone came in well ahead of Wall Street's estimates, sales of the iPad were below targets as Apple struggled to keep pace with demand after launching a new version of the device in early March. On a conference call Wednesday, Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, who's at the company's helm during CEO Steve Jobs's medical leave, said the company was facing "the mother of all backlogs" on the iPad 2.
