Wall Street Voices Opinion On Apple Watch

Apple Inc. AAPL will report earnings after Monday's market close. Ahead of the results several Wall Street firms gave their opinion on Apple's newest product, the Apple Watch.

Goldman Sachs

Bill Shope and Matthew Cabral wrote:

"Apple sold out of all Watch inventory to be delivered on the device's April 24 launch date. Shipping times for all models is now 4-6 weeks at a minimum, with many models not shipping until June or later...Apple noted that initial demand would likely exceed initial supply; some have attributed this imbalance to manufacturing delays, and others believe it is part of Apple's strategy to create hype."

"While it seems likely that Apple has severely restricted supply, these statistics also suggest that initial demand is robust."

Bank of America

Wamsi Mohan and Param Singh wrote:

"Apple started taking pre-orders for the Apple Watch at 12:01AM PT on Friday April 10th. While some users had initial problems ordering from the Apple website, the Apple Store App on iOS devices could be used to order the Watch. Demand seems strong at launch with shipping times for some models quickly extending to June. When asked by CNBC, CEO Tim Cook remarked that reaction to the Apple Watch has been extraordinary and that orders have been great. "

Related Link: Did Apple Send Mixed Messages About Its Apple Watch Launch?

Piper Jaffray

Gene Munster and Douglas Clinton wrote:

"Apple's initial Watch supply for April 24th sold out within the first 10 to 30 minutes of pre-orders. We believe that stable lead times through the weekend suggests that supply was the main limiting factor for opening weekend units as continued increases to lead-times would seem to have implied that ramping demand was claiming additional future units. We also believe that the stable lead-times are likely a function of an expected ramp in production in mid-May to June."

"Overall we view the trends over the weekend as an indication of solid demand paired with very limited supply, with supply being the most significant limiting factor."

Cantor Fitzgerald

Brian White and Isabel Zhu wrote:

"In our view, Apple Watch has gotten off to a strong start, with pre-orders beginning last Friday and shipment times stretched out until June for most models in the U.S. market. Although Apple generally experiences supply constraints with new product launches, we doubt the company was targeting shipment times stretching out into June so early in the pre-order process. Given Apple's powerful iPhone cycle, the momentum we see around the iPhone in China during our recent China/Taiwan Tech Tour, and the launch of Apple Watch, we believe there is still plenty to look forward to at Apple during this transformational cycle."

KeyBanc Capital Markets

Edward Yruma and Andy Hargreaves wrote:

"Despite mixed reviews of Apple Watch, initial order volume has vastly exceeded supply. When pre-orders became available at midnight EDT Friday morning, shipment times began extending almost immediately and were out to June or July within hours. Based on our supply checks, we believe Apple will have a total of around 5 million Apple Watches available for delivery to pre-order customers by the official launch on April 24. In our 1Q Consumer Technology survey, 45 percent of respondents indicated they would think a person wearing an Apple Watch is: "trying too hard," which vastly outweighed the 4 percent of respondents who answered "cool" and the 2 percent who answered "fashionable." This may be changing, but clearly Apple must work aggressively to make the watch a cultural phenomenon."