Piper Jaffray Raises Price Target On Apple After Earnings Beat (AAPL)

Piper Jaffray raised the price target on shares of Apple Inc.

to $429 from $390, and is keeping its Overweight rating, after the company reported much better than expected earnings yesterday. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "While shares of Apple may pull back today (10/19), we would be buyers based on our belief that investors will gain optimism over the next three months that the growth story will continue. We are raising our FY11 revenue growth rate from 24% to 32% and our price target goes from $390 to $429. Key takeaways from the Sept. quarter include: adjusting for iPhone backlog in Sept. (we believe iPhone growth rate went from 61% in June to 114% in Sept).; Apple reported 4.1m iPads sold but we believe the true demand was closer to 4.5m; Street was disappointed with margins but we believe higher volumes are a net positive for the business." Shares of AAPL are down $15.50 in pre-market trading to $302.50, a loss of 4.87%.