As Apple stock spiraled higher and higher this week, breaking the $640 mark, analysts are predicting what will happen when the company makes a 7-for-1 stock split in early June.
Many
Apple analysts had not predicted such a high stock price, and CNN Money said Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi raised his 12-month prediction from $615 to $700.
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Placing the new target at $100 per share after the split June 9, Sacconaghi said he expects Apple shares to outperform the market with the new iPhone 6 launch and an iWatch, CNN said. But while he was positive about the next six months or so for the company, the analyst told CNN that he thinks the company will struggle over the next three to five years.
“Longer-term," he told CNN, "it is unclear to us that Apple can sustainably increase its earnings over the next three to five years. We believe Apple's primary end markets (smartphones and tablets) are increasingly mature and that overall gross margins are more likely to decline than improve over time. Additionally, while Apple is an innovative company, we note that the law of large numbers dictates that new product categories will have an increasingly difficult time moving the needle financially for the company."
Others also recently forecast an
Apple run up to $700 a share, the Wall Street Journal said.
Oppenheimer’s Ari Wald predicted a record rise in the stock prices to WSJ even before the recent run up into the mid-$600s. Even if there was a pullback after the stock rose in price, Wald told the Journal that it probably wouldn’t last.
“The trend is rising,” Wald told WSJ. “If you’re not in [Apple] already, I believe you need a position in it.”
He added that in general, he’s a fan of tech and large-cap stocks, both of which Apple fits into.
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