There's no shortage of Wall Street bulls when it comes to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Shares are already up nearly 44% year to date to roughly $582 as of this writing, and analysts are still getting even more bullish of late.
In the wake of the most recent blowout quarter and subsequent new iPad unveiling, analysts have been scrambling to raise price targets and pound the tablet with "buy" ratings. Once upon a time, the Street's highest price target was $700, which seems entirely within reach at this rate. Well, we now have a new king of the price-target hill … sort of.
Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty has gone ahead and reiterated her "overweight" stance on the stock, along with boosting her price target on shares to a healthy $720 and adding it to the company's "Best Ideas List." She's also notching up her EPS estimates but believes that "investors still underestimate the potential earnings upside at Apple."
Huberty includes a handful of potential catalysts in the near future that she's pricing in, including increased enterprise adoption driven by the iPad 2's recent price cut, a strong upgrade cycle for this year's iPhone, and massive emerging-market opportunities.
That $720 price target? That's just her base case. Just wait until we get to the bull case. Here are some possible contributors to her bull case: New product categories like an Apple TV set or low-end iPhone, 2013 iPad shipments predicted to reach as high as 129 million units, current iPhone growth estimates excluding China that only assume normal upgrade and new subscriber activity, and the possibility for price multiple expansion that could be driven by a possible dividend.
Under this scenario, Huberty sees calendar 2013 EPS of $80 with a price target of $960. That's right, just shy of a grand per share. With 932 million shares outstanding, we'd be looking at a market cap of almost $900 billion.
If Apple can reach $960, hitting the magical $1,000 per share would be just around the corner.
Despite Apple's impressive run and massive growth opportunities, it actually doesn't earn the title of The Motley Fool's Top ASX Stock of 2012. That award goes to a small but growing telecoms company that also pays a decent dividend. Click here to get the free report now.
