Hot on the heels of Piper Jaffray’s increase in Apple’s target price last week, both UBS and Merrill Lynch have followed suit. UBS raised its forecasts for Apple saying a survey of U.S. retailers showed strong demand for its higher margin iPod photo and iPod mini as well as iMacs and accessories. UBS upped its share price target to US$77 from $66 on a raised FY 2005 revenue forecast of $11.1bn (was $10.9bn). Merrill Lynch raised its target price and fiscal year 2005 and 2006 estimates for Apple, saying it expected the company to sell 4 million iPods in the December quarter, up from 3.5 million and 12.9 million for fiscal 2005 up from 10.7 million. Merrill upped its target share price to $78 from $61 and raised its fiscal year 2005 earnings per share estimate to $1.45 from $1.38. In addition, the broker told investors to look out for a flash memory-based iPod from Apple in the first quarter and other possible exciting products such as an entertainment server.
