Does FBR Know Something We Don't? Firm Sets Two Street-High Price Targets In A Day

Analysts at FBR & Co released two research notes Thursday that may take traders and investors by surprise due to the firm’s high price targets on Apple Inc. AAPL and Netflix, Inc. NFLX.

Analysts Daniel H. Ives and James Moore set a $185 price target on Apple and wrote that “the company is well on its way to hitting a $1 trillion market capitalization.”

The analysts felt that the Street was “currently underestimating the top-line/profit growth potential” in Apple's “all-important software platform at the epicenter of its solutions.”

In comparison, Maxim Group recently set a $144 price target on the stock while Raymond James had a $124 price target.

Apple Inc. closed at $126.17 Thursday, down 0.48 percent, with its market capitalization at$737.85 billion.

On Netflix, analysts Barton Crockett and Howard Ma raised the price target from $400 to $900, while other Street analysts set targets around $500 to $650.

The price increase followed the Netflix Q1 earnings report which showed strong subscriber growth.

The analysts explained the rationale behind the price target by indicating that “proprietary survey work, in collaboration with ClearVoice Research, LLC,” suggested “that domestic Netflix subscribers—nearly 40 percent of TV households in the U.S.—love the service more than TV.”

The analysts thought that both U.S. and international subscriber growth would support the price target.

Netflix, Inc. surged higher following its earnings release and closed at $562.05 Thursday, up 18.21 percent.