Analysts Believe Apple's New Products Will Overshadow Icahn Investment as Next Catalyst - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Shares of Apple

AAPL

are continuing higher Wednesday morning following news broken on Twitter late Tuesday

Carl Icahn now has a "large position" in the company

. Apple shares closed Tuesday's session up nearly 5 percent and are up another 1.5 percent Wednesday. Analysts have been relatively quiet following the news. Below are some comments from the couple of reports issued so far.

UBS's Steven Milunovich believes Apple could resist Icahn's demands for an increased buyback, pointing out the company already buys back about 5 percent of outstanding shares per year. Milunovich believes the Apple story will be focused on products from here on out. He specifically mentioned the iPhone 5S and 5C, as well as possibilities for new iPads and new product categories next year. UBS reiterated a Buy rating and $500 price target.
ABG Sundal Collier's Per Lindberg, out of London, had a similar opinion in a note from Tuesday. "While Carl Icahn's announcement of a “major” investment may inspire hopes of an accelerating buyback programme, we surmise that an apparently increasingly active debate about the capital structure will be overshadowed by the imminent launch of the next batch of iPhones and iPads powered by an entirely new operating system," according to Lindberg. ABG Sundal Collier currently has a Hold rating on share of Apple.

About an hour and half into Wednesday's trading session, Apple shares are trading around $496.94.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs