Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster raised his price target on shares of Apple to $718 from a prior $670, to account for upwardly revised growth rates for the smartphone and tablet markets.
Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s:
Munster now sees Apple shipping more units, but also maintaining higher share of those markets than he previously thought.
Munster now expects Apple to sell 189 million iPhone units in calendar year 2013, up from a prior 162 million estimate, representing 23% market share, year over year, up from a prior expectation for just 20%. That’s out of a total projected market for 804.6 million smartphones in 2013. Munster sees Apple holding a third of the market by 2015, with 385 million iPhones sold.
On the tablet side, Munster now sees Apple’s iPad losing only minor share in 2013, versus a former expectation for a 12% loss.
Estimates are that Apple may sell 86.5 million iPads in calendar 2013, revised upward from a prior 75.5 million estimate, 44% higher than 2012. Apple would then have a 60% share of the tablet market.
Munster believes that by 2015, Apple may still have 60% of the market, with 176 million iPads sold.
Apple shares this morning are are down 58 cents at $589.
