Apple Will Become First Trillion-Dollar Company by 2014: Analyst
There’s a lot of excitement as top analysts continue to forecast when Apple will hit $1,000 a share and become the first trillion-dollar company.
For Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, that day will come sometime in 2014.
“I know that when you look at the $1,000 price tag, it looks like a big number. But when you look back and do the math … it’s not that hard to get there,” Munster told CNBC Tuesday, referring to how Apple shares have nearly doubled in the past year alone.
Munster attributes his very bullish outlook to opportunities in the mobile device space: Out of 1.6 billion total units to be made available in the market in the next couple of years, Piper Jaffray expects Apple to corner at least 400 million of the market, “a very achievable target.”
This, despite stirring concerns that the new generation of products will be more “evolutionary” rather than revolutionary.
But Munster said that in a survey his firm conducted of iPhone users across the U.S., up to 94 percent claim they will buy another iPhone, meaning the company can count on at least 35 percent to 45 percent of sales from upgrades every year. The highly anticipated Apple television, which is expected to launch next year, adds more upside to its prospects.
What will the world with Apple at $1,000 a share look like? The tech goliath alone would represent 26 percent of total U.S. technology market cap , Research in Motion would be “out of business,” and the other manufacturers such as Nokia and Microsoft will end up “virtually nothing over time,” according to the long-time tech analyst.
“It’s going to be a two-horse race between Apple and Android phones built on Samsung,” said Munster, who raised his current target on the iPad maker from $718 to $910. Apple is "going to go and rip market share right out of [its competitors] and put that into [its] market cap.”
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Disclosures:
Gene Munster and Piper Jaffray do not hold Apple shares, but Piper Jaffray makes a market in Apple stock on a principal basis.
