Apple Worth $200: Brian White

• Apple Inc. AAPL shares are down 15 percent in the last three months, and have traded below the $120 mark through August and September.
• Drexel Hamilton’s Brian J. White initiated coverage of the company with a Buy rating and a price target of $200.
• While Apple’s shares have recently been under pressure, White believes that the concerns related to a slowdown in China are overblown.

Analyst Brian White believes that the sharp decline in Apple’s share price presents “an attractive entry point,” since the concerns related to China are overblown. “Despite a slowing economic backdrop, our recent trip to China further supports our view that Apple fever is alive and well across the country,” he added.

White said that Apple plans “a bigger push” into the tier 3-5 cities, which represents 80-90 percent of China’s households. Over the next 12-24 months, the company would forge ahead in these cities across Mainland China, where 4G network is only 12 percent penetrated.

White expects India to be the next big iPhone market and the country appears to be “at a similar stage as China was for Apple in 2010.” He added that Apple continues to be “one of the most undervalued technology stocks in the world.”

While the iPhone continues to be the biggest contributor to Apple’s revenue and profit mix, the company has entered the wearable technology market with its Apple Watch and further expansion into new product categories can be expected in the future.

In the report Drexel Hamilton noted, “Over the next five years, we estimate the smartphone market will grow by a high-single digit percentage per annum, while we believe the tablet market will remain flat to slightly lower and we expect at least a low-single digit percentage annual contraction in the PC market.”

White pointed out that Apple was unique in the mobile space, since it develops software and hardware to work together. This positions the company strongly as the market moves towards more “things” becoming a computer.

“We continue to believe the TV market is a huge opportunity for Apple to reinvent a stagnant industry,” White wrote, while adding, “Longer-term, we believe Apple has bigger plans for the automotive market (i.e., outside of the current CarPlay) and a flurry of media reports this year support this notionl.”