Apple Worth $1000 A POP?
0Overall Score

Apparently so. The iPhone maker could soon be heading towards a trillion dollar value after two analysts predicted shares could be valued at an eye watering $1000 by 2014.


Click to enlarge

Apple shares currently stand at US$ 629.50 – a rise of 0.03% according to Marketwatch after analysts, including Piper Jaffray Co, Auriga and others, predicted a share price explosion for the tech darlings on the back of mammoth iPad and iPhone demand as well as the future prospect of an Apple TV.

“We believe shares of Apple will reach $1,000 in [calendar year] 2014, which would imply a roughly $1 trillion dollar market cap, the first in history,” wrote Piper analyst Gene Munster in a client note.

And bad news for rivals Samsung, Sony and Co, with the analyst also predicting further market exodus to Apple shares, and considering Cupertino finally coughed up a dividend to investors after a long drought, which may also lure even more to the Apple cart.

“We believe half will come from growth in dollars invested in tech and half from the continued market-cap shift from major competitors to Apple,” Munster added, and reckons the profitable iPhone will be the key driver of growth, despite the mammoth success new iPad has enjoyed.

“Apple will continue to win in global mobile devices,” he believes and reckons the iPhone 5 due this year will push its domination even further.

The analyst even lifted his formal 12-month share price target to a whopping $910 from $718.

And other analysts in the know agree with Munster’s sky high predictions including J.P Morgan and Auriga analyst Kevin Dede, who cited the revered iDevices that make up a powerful iOS ecosystem which competitors “cannot equally match”.

Both analysts also lifted their price targets for the booming techie to $700 and over. Topeka Capital Markets also backed up Piper’s $1000 predicted values of Apple shares within two years.

“The sheer scope of Apple’s devices in the end market and the uniformity and simplicity of design entices software developers which scales applications and in turn draws even more customers,” Dede said in a client note.

“We don’t see the trend being upset at this point, as broad expectations now call for the introduction of a large, flat-panel Apple TV to complement the other media access and creation devices it already offers.”

If Piper and other analysts are correct, Apple, already the most valuable company in the world based on market capitalisation, may be be the first US company ever to surpass the $1 trillion valuation.

And it looks like we’ll know more about Cupertino’s latest financial situation pretty soon as it looks set to announce second fiscal quarter results on Tuesday next, April 24, it confirmed on its investors page today.

 

Chief Tim Cook already revealed at the last earnings call in January almost $100 billion simmering in cash reserves and recently said it had already sold 3 million iPads just weeks after the release, so expect even more dizzying numbers from the giant later this month.

In January, Tim Cook announced a doubling of his company’s profit to $13.1bn – from the $6bn figure recorded a year earlier, on the back of 15 million iPads, 37m iPhones, 5.2m Macs sales.