Analyst Michael Olson explains why he raised his Apple price target to $201 from $187.
From a note to clients that landed on my desktop Wednesday:
Our sum-of-the- parts (SOTP) analysis provides additional “ammo” for why Apple is working to shift the narrative towards services. The SOTP analysis suggests that, using comp group average multiples, Apple’s services segment is actually more valuable than the product segment. Those two segments, products & services, go hand-in-hand, so a sum-of-the-parts exercise may not be entirely relevant, but we believe it provides further evidence that AAPL shares have upside to current levels and, potentially, well into the $200s.
Cue the spreadsheet:
Maintains Overweight rating and (Monday’s) $201 price target.
My take: Why not a nice even price target, like $200? Or, for that matter, $216?
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/26/no-need-to-subscribe/
But it was the rebuttals in the comments that caught her eye. Here’s one of the best:
“Brooks Talley –
This article weighs in at 12MB of data and 320 HTTP requests to 34 different domains, the vast majority of which are trackers and unethical advertisers.
So, yeah, I hope Apple News+ does decimate the TechCrunch’s current business model, because the current model is incredibly user-hostile.
Look at it this way: one of the key customer value props of Apple News+ is that I no longer have to have a relationship with content providers.
Blame Apple all you want, and advocate for keeping paywalled content off of the platform… but TechCrunch (and other publishers) literally created the demand that Apple is filling by being so cumbersome to use and so opposed to privacy.
Apple’s product wouldn’t be a threat if you hadn’t created the market demand for an intermediary to improve user experience and privacy protections.”
PED, You’re a pessimist! Well into the 200s means $240 – $270. 🙂
No matter, I just hope Pierre keeps his short on AAPL, so he can be fuel for a jump over $200 when he is forced to cover.