Wells Fargo Securities Has Positive Outlook on Apple Following Announcement of Deal with China Mobile

In a report published Monday, Well Fargo Securities analyst Maynard Um reiterated an Outperform rating on

. In the report, Wells Fargo Securities noted, “The oft speculated but ever elusive deal between Apple and China Mobile (the world's largest mobile services provider with more than 760 million customers) was officially announced. The multi-­agreement will see the 5s and 5c available for sale at China Mobile and Apple stores starting on January 17, 2014 (pre-­registration starts December 25). The deal should give further confidence to both December and March quarter iPhone units. China Mobile's TD­LTE network operates in the 2.5GHz band, which could also bode well for iPhone at Sprint [covered by Jennifer Fritzsche], which plans to overlay a faster 4G coverage in urban areas in 2014 using the 2.5GHz spectrum acquired through Clearwire. We believe there could be upside to our December quarter units of 54.8mn and are comfortable with our March quarter iPhone unit estimate of 42.8mn, which implicitly includes some China Mobile units. While the China Mobile announcement had long been anticipated, we believe the official announcement, and the consequent certainty, should be viewed as a positive.” Apple closed on Friday at $549.02.