Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Finishes Low - Oct. 1
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) finished the session low - Oct. 1, 2013 - at $476.40 with 1.31 percent decrease based on a real-time-data published by NASDAQ OMX.
Analysts still recommend a strong buy on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
In fact, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry upheld an Overweight rating on Apple and raised his price target from $650 to $725, stating "extremely strong" secular growth trends on iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.
According to Chowdhry, the iPhone 5s is giving Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) a 12-18 month ahead of Android while the iPhone 5c is targeting the 100 million market opportunity for younger demographic between the ages of 5 to 25.
He also cited that customers were shifting from Blackberry, Nokia, iPhone 4 and 4s to iPhone 5s and 5c.
Meanwhile a report (as published by AppleInsider) from Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank sang the same tune.
According to Whitmore, iPhone 5c and 5s may yield higher margins than the previous versions of iPhones "with the 16-gigabyte iPhone 5c providing a 50-basis-point, or 0.5 percent, bump and the 16-gigabyte iPhone 5s driving a full 1 percent increase as compared to the same capacity iPhone 5."
Consequently, these two new iPhones is "very beneficial" to Apple's bottom line even with the reported limited iPhone 5s supply.
Whitmore reiterated that despite the constraints on the iPhone 5s supply, the demands for the device remained remarkably strong. He had check with 20 Apple retail stores in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. All retail stores reported that iPhone 5s were completely sold out as soon as new supply arrived to the stores.
Sales personnel across retail stores in the U.S., UK and Australia were reportedly advising their iPhone 5s customers to call ahead to check if supplies are already available before heading out to the stores. Some customers even shop early in the morning to be the very first in the line to purchase as soon as stocks arrive.
One customer representative told Whitmore that "demand's been so high [for the iPhone 5s] that we run out of stock in about 30 minutes."
Whitmore pointed out that online retail stores reported the same strong demand for the iPhone 5s "with lead times from Apple and its major U.S. carrier partners at approximately 38, 21, and 24 days for the gold, space gray and silver models."