A little less optimism about profit margins means a lower price target for the stock, Apple bull Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said Thursday on CNBC.
"What's going on is we're being more conservative," he said. "We're factoring more the negative potential outcomes in the next year and two years, and not factoring as much as the positive potentials."
Munster, considered one of the most positive analysts on Apple, adjusted his price target from $910 to $875 per share.
"Yes, the narrative reads that we've cut our price target a couple of times, but at the end of the day, it's still 70 percent upside to the current stock," he said. "We still feel very good about owning Apple in 2013."
On "Fast Money," Munster said that he was factoring in lower margins on a potential sub-$400 phone from Apple, while also excluding the potential acceleration from any increase in market share in the price segment.
Munster said that more bullish investors were turning conservative.
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"In some ways, that sets up 2013 for a good year because over the last eight years that I've been covering this, it's been uber-optimism from the buy side and the sell side, and I feel like in some ways it's a good time to own it because these huge expectations – with myself, including a lot of investors – are now in check," he said.
"So I think the set-up is actually really good because there's going to be some big, important things happening in 2013."
