Apple Stock Worth Even More, According To Needham – Buy, Buy!
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This morning, Barrons reported that Needham & Co.’s Charlie Wolf has valuated Apple’s stock (APPL) to rise to $540, up from his earlier prediction of $450, over the next 12 months. He attributes the increase to the iPad’s overwhelming hold over the tablet market.
Wolf’s February prediction did not take into account the iPad’s value and now says Apple’s tablet is set to capture a significantly larger share of the market than previously predicted.
The increase in the iPad’s popularity is likely due to the lack of decent competition in the tablet market. Wolf states, “The reason for the increase stemmed from the failure of tablets introduced this year to gain any traction in the market place.”
Wolf points out that the iPad is winning the race because of apps. Apple’s iOS is sporting over 100,000 apps specifically for the iPad, while other operating systems like Android and QNX only offer a few hundred, at best. Additionally, potential competitors for the iPad’s affection, like Xoom and Playbook, were rushed to market missing crucial features that made them pale in comparison.
In Wolf’s prediction, the iPad makes up 12% of Apple’s value at $65.62 per share. That is more than the Mac desktop is worth, at $63.92 per share. The App Store and iTunes are worth $27.52 per share, or 5%, while the iPod has lost its footing, amounting to only $3.50 per share, or 0.6%. The darling of the Apple family, the iPhone still maintains nearly half of the per-share value at $265.86.
Apple shares opened today at $380.44 per share.
