Apple: Piper Ups Q4 Estimates; JMP Cautious on Laptops

There are some mixed reviews on Apple (AAPL) from the Street this morning.

• Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster upped his fiscal Q4 estimates for the company. He now sees revenue of $8.37 billion, up from $7.9 billion, with EPS of $1.17, up from $1.04. He expects Mac unit sales of 2.8 million, up from 2.5 million; iPods at 11 million, up from 10.8 million; and iPhones at five million, up from 4.1 million. Munster maintains his Buy rating and $250 price target on the stock.
• Shaw Wu of American Technology Research this morning repeated his Buy rating on the stock, and asserted in a research note that the iPhone power adapter recall announced on Friday is a “minor speed bump and nonevent.” He says there is headline risk from the news, but that the news is causing little or no disruption in iPhone shipments. He says AT&T and Apple stores are removing the power adapter and selling the phone without it; he notes that most people charge the phone with a USB cable attached to a PC or Mac.
• JMP Securities analyst Samuel Wilson wrote in a research note that his checks with 30 retail stores–20 Apple stores and 10 Best Buys (BBY)–found most sales people steering customers away from the MacBook Pro and toward the less expensive MacBook. “We were repeatedly told that that Pro is designed for the design community, with a high-end video card and large screen, and that we would be better with a MacBook for the cost,” he writes.

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