UBS Analysts Raise Apple Price Target Amid Bullish Survey Results

On Monday, UBS analyst Steven Milunovich raised the price target on shares of Apple Inc. AAPL from $115 to $125 amid a UBS Evidence Lab study that offered bullish smartphone results.

“We have used UBS's proprietary Evidence Lab study of consumers' stated purchasing
intentions to analyse a series of key investment debates and draw several conclusions
about the smart-phone and mobile payment markets.”

“The survey was sent out online to a representative panel of consumers across the USA, UK, Italy, and Mainland China in October. In total 4,000 respondents qualified, of which 1,000 were in each market.”

Results of the study include:

• 30 percent of respondents expect to buy a new device in the next 6 months.
• Over 40 percent of users likely to purchase an iPhone 6 in the next year, and the majority of these (53%) the 6 Plus.
• Demand in China is surprisingly high with 29% indicating they are very likely to choose the iPhone 6.
• 19 percent of respondents who own a Samsung device intend to switch to Apple products.
• Apple enjoys the highest overall retention rate at 84% and by far the highest retention in China at twice the rate of Samsung or Xiaomi.
• 70 percent of iPhone 6 purchasers citing an intention to use Apple Pay.

Lastly, UBS analysts find the study data is very bullish for Apple Inc. stating “Our data is
most encouraging for Apple, which we believe if Apple were valued more like a
subscription businesses with low churn, its market cap might be able to double and would have upside potential to US $266 per share.”

Shares of Apple Inc. recently traded at $108.73 down 0.09 percent.