Jefferies: Apple stock will rally thanks to surge in services revenue

“Jefferies believes Apple stock is undervalued after its recent drop over the past two months,” Tae Kim reports for Barron’s. “The firm’s analyst Timothy O’Shea reiterated his Buy rating for the smartphone maker’s shares, citing the company’s potential to grow its services businesses. ‘While we are reducing iPhone and EPS ests for F’19, Apple’s iPhone business still looks sufficient to build a massive, high margin, high multiple Services business over time,’ he wrote on Wednesday.”
“The analyst is bullish over Apple’s services segment, which includes its App Store, iCloud, Apple Music and Apple Pay businesses. He predicts the company’s App Store revenue will rise to more than $32 billion in five years from just $13 billion this year,” Kim reports. “‘The opportunity for investors is that these higher-margin, higher-growth software businesses deserve a higher multiple vs the lower margin, lower growth hardware business,’ he wrote… The analyst also lowered his price target to $225 from $265 for Apple’s stock. Still, the reduced price target implies about 36% upside.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Someday, it’d be nice to see Apple properly valued based on the company’s actual business instead of on random 90-day unit sales numbers and other such bunkum.