Needham & Company Maintains a 'Buy' on Apple (AAPL); Fine Tuning Our Apple Estimates

Needham & Company maintains a 'Buy' on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) price target of $540.00.

Needham analyst says, "On the strength of stronger than anticipated Mac sales and the likelihood of a channel replenishment of iPads, we’re raising our fourth quarter earnings per share estimate from $6.38 to $7.37, our fiscal 2011 estimate from $27 to $28 and our fiscal 2012 estimate from $31 to $33."

"With Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO and the appointment of Tim Cook in his place, the risk in the Apple story has swung back to macroeconomic factors. We view a possible worldwide double-dip recession as the greatest risk to our forecast at this time."

For more ratings news on Apple click here and for the rating history of Apple click here.

Shares of Apple closed at $399.26 yesterday.

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