This Analyst Says Apple Watch Sales Are Surprisingly Strong

Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said Apple Inc. AAPL Watch sales are "surprisingly strong" over the past six weeks, as it has been the most popular gift item for College/University Graduating Class and for Father's Day.

"We started to observe pick up in Apple Watch sales about 6 weeks back. Initially we ignored the data points, thinking that it was just a typical aberration. However, the strength in Apple Watch sales continued to increase and we started to pay more attention to the trend," Chowdhry wrote in a note.

Related Link: Apple Watch Sales To Fall More Than 25% In Its Second Year

Chowdhry observed the following trends after monitoring Apple product sales at 17 Apple Stores in total at California, Washington and Illinois:

• "Parents were buying Apple Watch for their children who were Graduating from College/ University this summer."
• "Children were buying Apple Watch for their Dad for Father Day."
• "In four Apple Stores, which we were monitoring, Apple Watch Sales exceeded that of Apple iPhone."

According to TipRanks, Chowdhry has a success rate of 59 percent with an average return per recommendation of +15.9 percent. The analyst is ranked 305 out of 3,990 analysts.

At the time of writing, shares of Apple closed up 0.72 percent at $99.65.