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© Reuters. Analysts positive on Apple (AAPL) ahead of earnings release
By Sam Boughedda
With Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares continuing to climb and the company releasing results for its latest quarter on May 4, analysts at both JPMorgan and CFRA raised their price targets on the stock on Wednesday.
JPMorgan analysts lifted the firm’s Apple price target to $190 from $175 per share, maintaining an Overweight rating on the stock.
They told investors in a note that they “see a divergence of the upcoming earnings print in relation to estimate revisions and share price implications, as fundamental weakness in the hardware categories, driven by a pullback in consumer spending, will drive consensus estimates lower.”
However, they feel that the magnitude of the downward revision being limited to a couple of percentage points “will reinforce positioning of the shares for resilience.”
At CFRA, analysts raised the firm’s price target on Apple to $190 from $165, stating that they see revenue growth accelerating after the March quarter and AAPL posting EPS ahead of consensus expectations as forex turns into a tailwind, and easier comparisons are lapped.
In addition, the analysts, who have a Positive rating on the stock, wrote that China could also support better-than-expected results.
“We project AAPL to unveil a new $90 billion buyback authorization and hike its dividend by 3% as we remain bullish on AAPL’s free cash flow potential,” they added.
