Dallas, Texas 07/03/2013 (Financialstrend) – Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) closed in the previous trading session at $418.49 after going up by 2.27% (or $9.27). The intra-day range of the stock is $409.47-$421.63. The market capitalization of the company is $393.42 billion.
Shares of Apple Inc. rose by 2.3%. The company extended profits on Tuesday for the third session after an analyst at UBS maintained the stock at a buy rating, putting a target price of $500. Steven Milunovich, analyst at UBS, said in a note that the stock is recovering from an “oversold” recent activity. There could be further improvements if Apple is able to recapture smart phone mindshare by introducing new models in 2014.
According to Mr. Milunovich, Apple is active at the upper end of the smart phone market which is becoming saturated and is also creating financial challenges for the company. He suggested the company needs to react in order to boost its market share by going “down- market” to attract some new users, through greater differentiation and innovation of new models.
However, he also maintained that the upcoming iOS update may help to re-energize the interest people had around the iPhone. He said that it is a common view that the differentiation is over but iOS 7 can have some significant functionality advantages that could be difficult to copy. According to Mr. Milunovich, Apple may be able to move the bar related to user experience so that it can bring the Android crowd back in its catch-up mode.
There has been news that Apple trademarked the name iWatch. The company may have a smart watch in development which indicates that the traditional watch might be doomed. The watches are actually becoming technologically superfluous, although the watch industry is growing. After a fall in sales of watches in 2008 and 2009, the situation has again reversed.
