On July 17, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:$AAPL) shares increased to a seventh straight gain. What caused the increase? It was all because of Morgan Stanley boosting its price target on the belief that bad news for 2017 could mean great news for 2018.
Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, increased her stock price target to $182, which is 22% above current levels, and 12% above the average target price. Apple’s stock increased as much as 1.2% in intraday trade before decreasing gains to close up 52 cents (0.3%) at $149.56. This win streak now marks the company’s longest such stretch since the seven-day streak which ended on October 12, 2016.
However, there is some bad news. When Apple announces their fiscal Q3 results on August 1, Huberty predicts that the technology giant will provide a Q4 outlook that is below Wall Street’s consensus. Why? Because Huberty forecasts that the new iPhone will be shipped marginally later than usual. According to Huberty, her new earnings-per-share estimate for fiscal 2018, which commences in October, is 11% above the consensus, and her revenue outlook is 13% above consensus.
As of right now, according to FactSet, Apple is thought to report EPS for the quarter ended in June of $1.57, and report September quarter EPS of $1.86. Apple’s stock has rallied 4.8% during its current seven-day win streak, and has run up 29.1% year to date.
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