Big Volume iPad Launch Likely to Raise Apple Stock Considerably High
The Apple iPad has created quite a buzz in the market since its launch 2 days ago and almost 5 million iPad tablets have been predicted to be sold in the first 12 months.
Based on the projected sales performance of the iPad, Wall Street analysts hope that Apple stock will reach as high as $305, whereas others consider the iPad launch was a booming achievement for the company.
A note which states that December 2010 price target for AAPL stocks have been raised to $305 from $240 has been issued to investors by Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan Research. Apple stocks have been giving excellent returns to the buyers as the sales of the Mac and iPhone is commendable in the country but with the triumphant launch of the iPad and the device crossing almost an estimated 51 percent gross margin, Moskowitz hopes that the new launched product will also contribute to Apple's bottom line.
He further added that though presently they are presuming that the iPad will be displaying a little lower sales graph as compared to that of the first generation iPhone, but at the same time they admit that these graphs can change with the iPad sales reported in coming quarters. We hope that the iPad will surely get the benefit from Apple's content ecosystem and the promising customer experiences of the iPhone and iPod touch.
J.P. Morgan has estimated that nearly 4.805 million devices of the iPad will be sent out in the first 12 months of the launch, compared with 5.047 million devices for the iPhone. As per the estimation, 825,000 units of the iPad will be shipped in the June quarter which will be followed by shipment of 1.23 million units in the September quarter.
The iPad will add on to the core businesses of Apple, including the Mac and iPhone, which Moskowitz hopes to rise further more in the year 2010. He has also elevated his predictions for Mac sales to 3.179 million in the March quarter and iPhone sales to 7.348 million.
Analyst Gene Munster conducted a survey of 448 iPad consumers with an idea to offer a better understanding of the device's early user base. The results of the survey were as follows:
• 74 percent of the buyers who bought iPad on the launch day were Mac users, which is similar case as with the original iPhone.
• Another 66 percent already had an iPhone, and 99 percent of those users wanted to their iPhone along with the new iPad.
• 13 percent of out of the people surveyed were using an Amazon Kindle, and more than half of those surveyed people wanted to change their Kindle with an iPad.
• However early buyers bought the iPad from the launch day and out of which 78 percent opined that they were not considering any other device when they bought an iPad. Only 10 percent thought about buying a kindle, and 6 percent looked out for a netbook.
On the basis of the survey results, Munster explained that Apple has been able to carve a niche in the product category with the new iPad and it will not have any affect on iPhone and Mac sales. He raised the price target for AAPL stocks from $280 to $289.
Piper Jaffray's analysis of 20 Apple stores in U.S. discovers that almost each store had the iPad stock which suggests that the stores are prepared for the successful launch of the product. Munster has also predicted that Apple will sell almost 600,000 to 700,000 iPad in the first 24 hours of the product launch.
Analyst Brian Marshall told during the weekend some of the stores in San Francisco and Boston were out of stock or had a very limited stock of the 16GB and 32GB iPad models. However, the 64GB model was available in ample numbers all over the country thus making it clear that product supply was not a concern for consumers during the weekend.
He also found out that quite a lot of Best Buy and Apple stores were shut down on Sunday due to the Easter holiday thus affecting the sales of the iPad.
He further assumed that Apple has sold 525,000 units during the launch weekend and have almost 250,000 online pre-orders, 221,000 Apple retail store sales, and 55,000 sold from Best Buy.
So keep an eye on Apple stock predictions and we will be back with more Apple stock analysis for you.
