Apple Stock Price Target: $300?

Whether you worship Steve Jobs or think everything he does is crap, there is no denying that Apple is succeeding in a big way. The stock price is hovering around $200 per share – incredible for a computer company. And BloggingStocks.com is now forecasting $300 per share by the end of 2008.

The story also notes that the major reasons for the stock jump – the new products – are all early in their product cycles. The Iphone was just released this year. We have a ways to go before the Iphone starts fading away. The global hype surrounding this single product has been deafening, and Apple is laughing all the way to the bank as they sold 5 million Iphones this year. Apple also gets a cut of every carrier contract with AT&T (no doubt the leading reason Apple made the otherwise appalling decision to lock the device to AT&T).

The release of Leopard OS X also saw a large increase in Apple sales of computers. They sold a total of 2.16 million Macs in their fourth fiscal quarter, according to PC World. Apple market share is increasing and they are actually managing to make inroads into the sacred field of business (usually easy ground for Microsoft Windows).

BloggingStocks also points out the following, which I found interesting:

The Apple retail stores, 197 strong, average over $4400 of revenues per selling square foot, the highest of any American retailer. That was the 2006 sales per square foot number and that was before the iPhone or the new Mac. I think those numbers are going higher.

The highest revenue per square foot of any American retailer. Amazing.

Apple has a long ways to go in playing catchup with the PC. But, one thing I have little doubt about – the company is brilliant in how they conduct business in terms of making money and generating buzz.

I guess I helped them out this year, being that I am one of those 2.16 million who purchased a Mac this year.

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http://unknown David M
Apple has such a small percentage of the desktop market that yeah, there is plenty of room for growth as long as they remain price competitive with PC’s. This is the area where I believe Apple has the greatest potential for growth.
If I did not like building PC’s for myself and I was not an avid gamer, I probably would choose an Apple over a home built Windows based computer.
I don’t foresee the iPhone gaining a large percentage of the cellphone market and neither does Apple in their projections.
The iPod market is pretty much saturated.
Apple may come out with something better than they have now for watching movies in high definition downloaded via the internet. I think most consumers would be willing to pay for such a machine if the downloading process is made easier than it is now and the box is priced between $200 to $300. Downloading high definition movies easily and cheaply off the internet is the next step beyond BluRay and HD-DVD.
AAPL did go above $200 a couple times on Thursday. I don’t think Apple is ready for a $300 share price until they show better earnings. Perhaps in a year or so? For now, only momentum traders could drive the share price to $300 and this would be based on speculation and not reported earnings. I’m keeping my shares of AAPL. Even with a 51 P/E, the companies growth still justifies it’s share price…barely though.