A Couple Incremental Positives Noted for Apple (AAPL)

After flipping in and out of positive territory, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is up 0.4% mid-day bolstered by positive comments today from a couple analysts.

First, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster said based on their survey work they expect iPhone 6S users to upgrade their iPhones sooner than expected. "We surveyed 236 iPhone 6S owners in the US and found that 31% of them expect to upgrade their iPhone every 18 months or sooner; 18.5% every 12 months or sooner," Munster commented. "While this is our first time running this survey and don't have prior data for comparison, we believe that the data is an early positive sign that the shift of US carriers to an installment-based smartphone sales model is enabling users to upgrade their devices more frequently. Over time, we continue to expect that iPhone upgrade cycles can shrink to 15 months for an average user from 22 months today, which we believe would have a 3% tailwind to US units over 3-4 years starting in late 2016 and a ~5% tailwind to overall units as the installment programs become common in International markets." Munster maintained an Overweight rating and price target of $179

Second, RBC Capital analyst Amit Daryanani said said the iPad Pro could offer $2.4 billion in near-term revenue potential. "Apple recently released its new iPad Pro product and we believe total units shipped will come in at ~3M over the first three months (anticipate ~4.5M units through Mar-qtr). At the low-end this would imply a $2.4B revenue opportunity over the next three months (and for Mar-qtr), which implies ~$600M in operating profit or ~$0.08–0.10 in incremental EPS. From a Mar-qtr perspective, this would result in +4% to the top-line and +3% to EPS to start the new calendar year. Net Net: as the company ramps production of the iPad pro (including 5–7 weeks of channel inventory build), we see a near-term $2.4B revenue opportunity." Daryanani maintained an Outpeform rating and price target of $150.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Apple click here. For more ratings news on Apple click here.

Shares of Apple closed at $117.75 yesterday.

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