Apple shares are up a buck per share in early pre-market trading this morning as Cowen analyst, Tim Arcuri upgrade the shares from Market Perform to Outperform and raised his price target from $125 per share to $135 per share.
He cites valuation as one of the reasons. He says even given the recent rally off the February lows, Apple trades at a 25% to 30% discount to the large cap tech peer group as well as the S&P 500 index.
His second reason is that according to him estimates going forward have bottomed and year on year comparisons have become more favorable for Apple also going forward.
Arcuri expects that the shares will benefit from the iPhone7 launch this fall.
Most importantly for Apple investors (new or existing), Arcuri had been straddling the fence for the last months with a Market perform rating and consequently, in my opinion, his recommendation to Buy the shares now indicates that the worst could be behind for the company.
Here's what I wrote a couple of weeks or so ago, "Most of the Apple analysts continue to be agnostic on the stock, however, with the unveil of a smaller iPhone, increased dividends, expanded buyback, their stance could soon change.
The stance is changing and changing rapidly now.
The question is, can you all see it?
Apple shares are trading up $1.33 per share at $109.01 bid on 135k shares traded at the time of this writing.
PS: Watch out for the boo-birds aka naysayers and their agendas.
(Long aapl, calls)
