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organ Stanley became the fourth analyst this week to raise its estimates for Apple this quarter, upgrading Apple to “overweight” Friday. The firm said it believes the iPod halo effect — PC iPod owners switching to Macs — is roughly double what the market expects.
Analyst Rebecca Runkle set a $60 price target for Apple and raised her fiscal year 2005 earnings per share estimates to $1.31 on revenue of $16.9 billion.
Runkle believes that all PC makers could be hurt by users switching to Macs, but believes that Hewlett-Packard, which has a strong retail presence, is at the greatest risk.
On Monday J.P. Morgan raised its fiscal year 2005 earnings per share estimates for Apple to $1.15 on revenue of $13.57 billion; on Tuesday, Credit Suisse First Boston also raised its earnings estimates to $1.15 per share on revenue of $13.4; and Goldman Sachs said it expects Apple to post earnings of $1.12 per share for the fiscal year Thursday.