Admittedly, there's still plenty of time for all manner of things to inexplicably go wrong for Apple Inc., Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um told his clients on Monday that when it comes to $AAPL, "The Mayan Apocalypse is not upon us."
Similar to the note from Shaw Wu we covered earlier on Monday, Mr. Um's research not was predicated on news of a record iPhone 5 product launch in China over the weekend. Apple announced it had sold 2 million units in the first three days of availability, in contrast to worries on Friday that no lines meant no sales.
"Apple's announcement this morning (12/17) should help to allay concerns and provide us with additional comfort that the company will either meet or beat our 46MM iPhone estimate for the December quarter,
the analyst wrote.
To emphasize his point, he added, "We continue to expect Apple to deliver record results for the December quarter."
He reiterated his target price range of $710-$730 for $AAPL and an "Outperform" rating.
Shares of $AAPL ended the day higher at $518.83, a gain of $9.036 (+1.77 percent), on moderate volume of 27 million shares trading hands. While a strong gain, it wasn't enough to make up the $19.896 loss on Friday.
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*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.