Apple's 9 million weekend: What the analysts are saying
September 23, 2013: 10:43 AM ETApple surprised everybody with first weekend sales of the iPhone 5S and 5C.
Friday at Apple's Fifth Ave. store. Photo: PED
FORTUNE -- If any of the dozens of Wall Street analysts who follow Apple (AAPL) predicted that the company would sell more than 9 million new iPhones over their first three-day weekend, we didn't get the memo.
Here's a sample of what the analysts are saying now. More as they come in, new ones on top.
Toni Sacconaghi, Bernstein: Apple: Blow Out First Weekend Sales -- What Do They Mean? "On balance, the stronger than expected sales for the first weekend reaffirm our belief that upside exists for Apple's FY Q4 (Sept) and FY Q1 (December) quarters, consistent with Apple's statement that revenues and gross margins will be at the high-end of its guidance for the September quarter. In fact, we believe that Apple's statement of "near the high-end" could imply above the high-end of Apple's guidance ranges. Our analysis indicates that first weekend launch sales as a percent of current quarter (i.e. September) and next quarter (i.e. December) consensus estimates are the highest in launch history. " Price target: $600. Rating: Outperform.
Amit Daryanani, RBC: Strong Weekend Sales for 5s and 5c. "AAPL reported that it sold over 9M units of iPhone 5s/5c during the first weekend, well ahead of expectations of ~6M units. Furthermore, AAPL now expects both revenues and gross-margins to come in at the high-end of prior guidance. We believe these numbers demonstrate AAPL's commitment and success of focusing on profitability vs. market share." Target price: Increased to $550 from $525. Outperform.
Walter Piecyk, BTIG: Raising Estimates on Apple after Strong First Weekend. "Six years after the launch of the first iPhone, Apple's first weekend sales figures are still primarily a function of how many iPhones it can make rather than how much demand exists in the market. Once again, stores were emptied and online order delivery dates have been pushed out weeks. The result was an impressive 9 million phones sold in the first weekend, an incredible manufacturing feat and something in which the company was finally able to "double down on secrecy." $540. Buy.
Steven Milunovich, UBS: Strong 9mn Sold First Three Days. "Recent interviews with management elucidate the strategy. It is clear that management did not intend to address the lower end of the market and thinks that demand will be fine if Apple continues to make the best products with the best user experience. Apple is not in the "junk business," according to Tim Cook. Greater segmentation of the high end makes sense and helps near-term sales. The risk is Apple is not protecting its flank from Android—a $300 Android phone in a year or two will not be junk. Still, we give Apple the benefit of the doubt given the history of 'better over cheaper' strategies being successful (see our recent strategy series on Apple)." $520. Neutral.
Brian Marshall, ISI: Looks like People are Loading up on Apples again. "With recent investor discussion often focused on the perception of diminished relevance of the iPhone, AAPL provided a powerful reminder of the strength of AAPL's iPhone franchise this weekend and the "stickiness" of its iOS/iCloud/iTunes/App Store ecosystem... In addition, 200mil+ users have upgraded to iOS7 in the first five days of its release (vs. 100mil+ who upgraded to iOS6 and 25mil+ who upgraded to iOS5 in the first five days of their respective releases). We believe many new features in iOS7 (e.g., iTunes radio, enhanced Siri/iCloud, new UI, etc.) will help AAPL retain ecosystem loyalty. Personally, we found iOS7 to be much faster on our iPhone 5 and enjoy the refreshed look/feel. $600 Strong buy.
Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray: Breaking Down The 9 Million Units. We believe that based on the 9 million number and our observations of weekend sales, the mix may have been around 4 million 5S units and 1.5 million 5C units sold-through (3.5 million sell-in). In our 5-6 million unit sell-through estimate, we had assumed 2.5 million units of the 5S and 3.5 million units of the 5C. The channel fill we are assuming from the 5C was not in our expectations. In terms of 5C channel fill, we note that currently the iPhone 5C is available on the online Apple Store with a 24 hour lead time. We believe this implies that the company has near-full channel inventory of the 5C. Based on the 11 million total iPhones available in channel inventory as of the June quarter, we believe this implies that 5C could be 3-4 million units." $640. Overweight.
Brian While, Cantor Fitzgerald: Apple Defies the Skeptics with a 9 Million New iPhone 5S and 5C Weekend Print. "Given that the iPhone 5S was not available for pre-order this year but the iPhone 5C became available for pre-order on September 13, we believe the strength of this weekend's sales benefited from much stronger than expected demand for the iPhone 5C. In our view, the criticism of the iPhone 5C as being too expensive versus expectations and thus demand would be muted were proven wrong with today's strong weekend sales that required strong demand for the iPhone 5C because the iPhone 5S had limited availability." $777. Buy.
Stuart Jeffrey, Nomura: Strong 5c/s Launch But Still No Growth. "While numbers are expected to come in at the high end of the guidance range, it is worth noting that year-on-year growth remains weak, for example:
- 3% yoy revenue growth if revenues hit $37bn
- 5% yoy gross profit decline if revenues are $37bn and gross margin is 37%
So while results look promising, they do not take away from the fact that Apple is still struggling to drive growth, which likely limits scope for multiple expansion." $480. Neutral.
Trip Chowdhry, Global Equities Research: Sold 9 million iPhones. "We are not surprised... below is what we have been saying for almost 2 weeks. 'new iPhones will be massively successful... and this is just a start....' " $650. Overweight.
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