"aapl to surge to $250.00 by end of 2008", I'd be surprised if it doesn't hit that by back to school qtr 08
Apple May Surge 34% by End of 2008, Bear Stearns Says (Update1)
By Jeff Kearns
Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. shares may surge 34 percent by the end of next year, boosted by higher iPod sales and better- than-expected demand for Macintosh computers from Asia, a Bear Stearns Cos. analyst said.
Andrew Neff increased his share-price forecast for the Cupertino, California-based computer maker to $249 from $243 and raised his earnings estimate for the fiscal year ending in September by 2.9 percent to $5.40 a share.
He also cited ``strong consumer acceptance'' of Apple's new Leopard operating system and said the company is ``strongly positioned for the holiday season given the confluence of product cycles'' for Mac and iPod. He maintained the ``outperform'' rating he's held for two years.
``We see Apple's story becoming stronger and evolving from a company dependent on one hit product to one with multiple growth engines,'' Neff wrote in a research note. ``Mac product cycle continues to gain momentum following the migration to Intel-based CPUs, along with very competitive pricing, OS refresh, and expanding distribution.''
Apple advanced to the highest in a month, climbing $4.45, or 2.4 percent, to $189.95 at 4 p.m. in New York. The stock has more than doubled this year.
Neff's $249 forecast is the second-highest among 29 analysts who track the stock, according to Bloomberg Data. Piper Jaffray & Co.'s Gene Munster has a forecast of $250.
Leopard, the latest version of the Macintosh operating software, went on sale Oct. 26. It's the sixth major version of Apple's OS X software, which first went on sale in 2001. The previous edition was released in April 2005.
Mac laptops and desktops accounted for 43 percent of Apple's revenue in the fiscal year ended in September, followed by iPo
