Cowen and Company Reiterates Outperform Rating, $550 PT on Apple as Supply Chain Sees Positive Revisions

In a report published Monday, Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri reiterated an Outperform rating and $550.00 price target on Apple AAPL. In the report, Cowen and Company noted, “We believe Apple's supply chain is seeing incremental positive revisions as iPhone demand (particularly 5S) remains elevated post product launch. We continue to believe street estimates are likely conservative as iPhone demand remains solid. Cowen estimates for iPhone are ~36MM in September Q and ~56MM in December Q and, based on our work in Asia, we feel good about these above-Street numbers. At the same time, we believe that Apple is likely seeing some ramp issues with new parts (camera module, fingerprint sensor) which will likely cause 5S supply to remain constrained potentially through year end. While FQ1:14 (Dec) should be a strong Q for both iPhone shipments and gross margin, we feel that initial indication points to a strong drawdown for the supply chain in the March Q and component shipments, at this stage, look to us to be down materially.” Apple closed on Friday at $83.03.