Goldman Sachs Lifts Price Target and Estimates on Apple (AAPL) Ahead of December Quarter

Goldman Sachs raised estimates and its price target on Conviction Buy List-rated Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) from $520 to $550 saying the company is set to report healthy December quarter upside and all signs point to better than expected performance through 2012.

Goldman raised its iPhone unit estimates for the December quarter from 30.2 million to 31 million, which suggest 82% sequential growth and 91% annual growth.

The firm sees overall revenues of $38.18 billion and EPS of $9.94, versus its prior view of $37.06 billion and $9.44 and the consensus of $38.28 billion and $9.87.

Goldman expects several key catalysts to drive the stock price and the multiple higher this year. One is iPhone momentum should continue into 2012. They also expect lower price point for the iPad 2 and the launch of the iPad 3 to trigger accelerating momentum in the June quarter and beyond. All the while the Mac business continues to defy the general weakness in the PC market. They expect this to continue as the MacBook Air drives hefty notebook share gains in the coming quarters.

Apple reports Q1 (Dec qtr) results on January 24th after the market closes.

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 $422.40 yesterday.

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