07:31 AAPL Apple: Color on quarter (174.36 )
Cross Research notes AAPL report strong 4Q7 results, which beat their close to high on the Street EPS ests, driven by strong Mac and iPod sales. EPS was $1.01 vs their est of $0.97 (consensus was $0.86). Rev was $6.2 bln vs consensus of $6.1 bln but below their est of $6.4 bln, as they had forecasted slightly higher iPod sales.
Firm is raising their tgt to $225 (from $200) driven by upside to their earnings and cash flow ests. Firm notes Mac sales were very strong with Mac product sales and services representing 62% of total rev. AAPL said that it had sold about 1.1 mln iPhones and 95% of its iPhone customers were very satisfied and would recommend the product to others...
Broadpoint Capital says due partly to the price cut AAPL shipped a cumulative 1.4 mln iPhones by the end of 4Q07, 400K more than prior guidance. Desktop rev growth accelerated to 30.9% from 19.8% in the prior quarter, driven by the new iMacs. Firm increased tgt to $210 from $170...
ThinkEquity notes AAPL's new product rollout powered a solid F4Q. Even excluding the co's one-time tax benefit, EPS grew a robust 50% y/y. With a refresh of its Mac and iPod lineups, and three new carriers set to debut iPhone in Europe in Nov, firm believes AAPL will continue to outpace the industry in growth heading into the holiday season. If firm carries forward AAPL's current CY'07 P/E of 40x, implying a 1.3x PEG to their 31% CAGR for EPS, to their CY'08 EPS of $5.69, firm arrives at a fair value of $227, or 30% upside, making shares a Buy...
BMO Capital Markets notes for the first time in many years, AAPL's rev guidance is significantly higher than they anticipated. Firm projects modest sequential CPU and iPhone impact, and therefore believes that AAPL will have significant iPod rev growth at close to 140% sequentially, helped by healthy ASPs and 135% q/q unit growth.
