A year that sees a stock shoot up from $115.97 to $169.21, a near 46% increase over 12 months, can’t be classed as anything else but a colossal success. However, it is worth nothing the speculation around a bursting tech bubble, or a slowdown in iPhone sales, has made itself felt on Apple’s market performance, with its chart littered with little pockets of doubt.
The same has been true of its 2018 performance to date, with the giant quickly climbing to an all-time high of $180 in the middle of January before pulling back to a current trading price of $171.73.
Not that there was much to worry about back in November, when Apple reported its fourth quarter figures. Revenue rose 12% to $52.6 billion, around $2 billion higher than analysts’ forecasts and above Apple’s own estimates, while earnings per share surged 24% to $2.07, 20 cents above what was expected. As for iPhone sales, they were up a more modest 2% to 46.7 million, around half a billion more than forecast.
Most exciting, however, was Apple’s guidance for the first quarter. The company is expecting revenue to come within an iPhone X-boosted, record-breaking range of $84 billion and $87 billion, a 7% to 11% increase year-on-year – and some analysts think it could be even higher, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) forecasting a whopping $92.2 billion.
If accurate, such revenue would likely see Apple surpass the $18.4 billion profit it posted in January 2016, a figure so great it is the largest ever recorded by a single public corporation. Oh, and with 3 new models – the X was preceded by the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus – quarterly iPhone sales may well cross 80 million for the first time.
Now all Apple has to do is meet these ludicrously high expectations...
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has a consensus rating of ‘Buy’ alongside an average target price of $201.78.
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