Benzinga Pro offers a real-time newsfeed as headlines break on earnings releases, analyst ratings, rumors, the biggest movers, and many more actionable alerts.

Find Stocks Tailored to Your Trading Interests

benzingaproreview-1-1280x720

acf/call-to-action

<a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1kQ-soZmmTRqplsRXp5Zfpw1npzh">Claim Exclusive Offers</a>

Compare Investing Brokers (USE THIS ONE)

acf/widget-container

acf/compare-products

Plus500 Yield

IBKR Stocks

public.com

Moomoo

Webull

<a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1kQ-soZmmTRqplsRXp5Zfpw1npzh">Claim Exclusive Offers</a>

Compare Crypto Brokers Homepage

Plus500 Crypto

Kraken

Webull Crypto

FxGlory

eToro

Uphold Crypto

Compare Brokers Table – Benzinga.com

Apple

Analyst ratings are quantitative and qualitative analysis of a stock by Wall Street stock rating analysts. Stock ratings consist of expected future growth, current stock valuation and macroeconomic trends.

Benjamin Reitzes'

Barclays analyst Benjamin Reitzes earlier suggested Apple could "easily" double the size of its three-year capital plan currently instated. 

The analyst believes Apple could likely boost its dividend to nearly $15/share and increase its buyback plan to around $40 billion over the next three years. Reitzes said Apple could go to the debt market and borrow up to $50 billion against its overseas cash hoard. 

Reitzes maintains an Overweight rating and $530 price target on shares of Apple.

Apple shares are down 1.5 percent to around $431 at last check.

Analyst Color

News

Dividends

Buybacks

Analyst Ratings

AAPL

Barclays Says Apple Should Borrow Against Cash Hoard, Double Size of Current Capital Plan

If you like tech stocks, and you decided to invest in one of the stocks listed on the tech-laden Nasdaq exchange about a year ago, chances are you would have made some money. The Nasdaq has gone up 25 percent over the last 12 months. If you wanted to invest in a company with growth potential but you're an older investor, like me, and wanted to keep your risk to a minimum by investing in one of the larger tech companies, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: <a class="ticker" href="/stock/aapl#NASDAQ">AAPL</a>) would have been a good choice. Apple's stock has outperformed the Nasdaq by over 41 percent during this period and the company is now the largest tech firm.

As the new year approaches, you older investors aren't getting any younger. Apple is still a growth stock and, I believe, the risks are few. Apple is still the number one trendsetter in the tech world. It ascended to the Nasdaq throne on the coattails of the trendsetting iPod, iPhone and iPad. Apple's most important innovation, I believe, is still in its embryonic stages. That would be <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/facetime.html?cid=wwa-naus-seg-iphone10-025&cp=www-seg-iphone10-videos&sr=sem">FaceTime</a>, the video chat technology that could turn out to be Apple's crowning achievement.

FaceTime has redefined video chat in much the same way that the iPod changed music players, the iPhone transformed the smartphone and the iPad blazed a new tablet trail.

Since its release in early June, Apple has made FaceTime the <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/07/11/apple_promoting_iphone_4_in_four_new_facetime_ads.html">chief selling point</a> of the popular <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/">iPhone 4</a>. At the time, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs set a goal of selling "tens of millions of FaceTime-capable devices" this calendar year. By September, Fortune magazine was predicting that 48 million FaceTime-equipped devices could be sold by the end of the year.

With the addition of FaceTime to the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/facetime.html">iPod Touch</a> and <a href="http://www.apple.com/mac/facetime/">Mac</a> computers, these predictions appear to be coming true. When <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7TfSV7kyjM">introducing FaceTime for Mac</a> in October, Jobs said that in the previous four months, 19 million FaceTime-enabled devices had been shipped.

Apple's popular video chat feature will be the chief catalyst that drives the company's stock much higher, predicts Benjamin Reitzes of Barclays Capital. "Long-term, we are excited about Apple's potential to grow via network devices through FaceTime," said Reitzes. "Even at this market cap, we continue to believe Apple is the best growth play in the IT hardware segment."

OmniVision Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: <a class="ticker" href="/stock/ovti#NASDAQ">OVTI</a>) will supply image sensors for the second-generation iPad, which will ship early next year, according to the investment firm Detweiler Fenton. The research firm said that the new iPad will have two cameras that will likely support FaceTime.

A recent report by In-Stat projected mobile video calling revenue of $1 billion by 2015. "The market for mobile video calling is hardly new," notes Frank Dickson of the mobile internet division. "What is new is implementing mobile video calling over IP in a significant way. Apple's launch of the iPhone 4 and FaceTime marks the point at which the competition for mobile video calling dominance began in earnest. Apple's capability to revolutionize the mobile calling market is very real and no one in the ecosystem wants to be left behind."

VoIP pioneer <a href="http://www.skype.com/intl/en/features/allfeatures/video-call">Skype</a> was the company generally associated with video chat before FaceTime arrived. However, Skype does not, as yet, have a smartphone video chat app. The company stepped up its game earlier this month, though, by releasing its Skype 5 beta for Mac, which features the ability to make <a href="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2010/11/04/GVC_-_4_participants.png">group video calls</a>.

<a href="http://qik.com/">Qik</a>, a small company in Silicon Valley, offered mobile video calling long before FaceTime came on the scene. Earlier this month, T-Mobile and Qik <a href="http://qik.com/blog/">teamed up</a> to bring integrated video chat to the MyTouch 4G Android smartphone. T-Mobile also started airing a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KmfXupi9cg&feature=player_embedded">commercial</a> poking fun at the AT&amp;T Inc. (NYSE: <a class="ticker" href="/stock/t#NYSE">T</a>) 3G network for not supporting FaceTime. The Apple video chat service is only available on WiFi networks.

In October, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: <a class="ticker" href="/stock/yhoo#NASDAQ">YHOO</a>) entered the video calling frey. Yahoo's Messenger App for iPhone, which includes video chat via WiFi, was launched.

Scheduled to be released later this year, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: <a class="ticker" href="/stock/goog#NASDAQ">GOOG</a>) Android 3.0, codenamed Gingerbread, will feature support for video chat. <a href="http://www.google.com/support/chat/bin/answer.py?answer=159499">Google Chat</a> is presently restricted to computer to computer voice and video calling.

A year-old Silicon Valley startup named Tango recently launched a cross-platform video calling service that works over WiFi and cellular networks. The Tango service is available via a free app from the Apple app store or the Android Market.


Related article
<a href="http://www.cultofmac.com/facetime-porn-service-excited-about-mac-availability/65116">Porn Service Excited about FaceTime for Mac</a> (cultofmac.com)

Barry Bazzell is a Benzinga contributor who focuses on Bay Area technology stocks. He blogs about tech companies and startups at <a href="http://dock-of-bay.blogspot.com/">Silicon Valley Blog</a>.

Tech

GOOG

OVTI

YHOO

FaceTime Apple&#39;s Top Trendsetter

<a href="http://iphonasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/apple-logo1.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-9731" title="apple-logo1" src="http://iphonasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/apple-logo1.jpg" alt="" width="86" height="104" /></a>Here are a few excerpts from today’s (Jan 25, 2010) Apple (AAPL) Q1 2010 earnings conference call (<a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/184328-apple-inc-f1q10-qtr-end-12-26-09-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1">full transcript via Seeking Alpha</a>):
Benjamin Reitzes – Barclays Capital
With regard to the iPhone could you talk a little bit more about China and in particular did that meet your expectations in the quarter? How is that looking into this year? Do you think you will add more partners over time in that area as well?
 
 
 

<div id="attachment_9733" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 140px"><a href="http://iphonasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ref_05cook.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-9733 " title="ref_05cook" src="http://iphonasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ref_05cook.jpg" alt="" width="130" height="182" /></a>Apple COO - Tim Cook</div>

Timothy Cook – Apple COO 
 
We typically do not disclose units by country but given the visibility of this one I will do so. We started selling in China as you know at the very end of October and beginning of November. Earlier this month we had cumulatively activated over 200,000 units, crossing the 200,000 unit mark. We ramped the point of sales across that period of time to end at about 1,500 by the end of Q1 and we are very, very focused on the quality of the point of sale and customer experience. We would prefer to move slow because we are building the brand for the long-term and we are very much focused on the long-term in that market because we think there is significant potential there.
I wouldn’t want to forecast where sales will go and what we may or may not do from a partner point of view. We are very happy with working with China Unicom. They are an excellent partner for us and I am thrilled we are underway and have got about 2.5 months experience under our belt.
<a href="http://iphonasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/asia_pacific.gif"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-9732" title="asia_pacific" src="http://iphonasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/asia_pacific.gif" alt="" width="265" height="207" /></a>Katie Huberty – Morgan Stanley
I want to revisit the discussion on China and emerging markets from a broader perspective because these regions tend to share characteristics that are very different than the mature markets where you have had lots of success particularly the percent of customers that purchase phone service on a prepaid basis, lower average income levels, etc. As you think about those barriers is it appropriate to rollout iPhone and other products and pricing and distribution in a homogenous or global way or might you down the road have to look at it on a country by country or region by region basis?
Timothy Cook – Apple COO
 
We have just really got going in China. I really like what I see so far. Although the average income is not nearly as high as perhaps the United States and some other western European markets, there is a significant size middle class and up there. I think to do a real deep analysis you really have to look not just at the averages but at the distribution of income within these countries. We have been selling in Brazil for awhile and are learning about Brazil as well. The Brazilian economy is different than the Chinese economy because the duties are very significant and the taxes are very significant there which tends to compound the price.
But we are very focused on these markets. In fact, if you look at greater China last quarter which is China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, our revenues tripled year-over-year in that geography which is I think phenomenal by any measure. We have a tremendous focus on it. As was alluded to earlier in the call 58% of our revenue last quarter was from outside the United States and it is clear as you look at our numbers our growth rates are much higher outside the US. We realize we must do well in these markets to continue to grow.
Keith Bachman – BMO Capital Markets
For you, on Asia Pac and Japan, CPU sales were particularly strong and moreover if you look at Asia Pac the revenues were about, the year-over-year growth rate was about three times than the CPU units. I just want to try and understand in Japan and Asia Pac it looks like a pretty strong mix up in terms of computers but also just underlying strength. I wanted to hear if you could offer some color around that please.
Timothy Cook – Apple COO
 
In Japan what is going on there is the iPhone has been a runaway hit. The iPhone was up over 400% year-over-year during the quarter. So that is what is driving the huge revenue growth you see in Japan. The Mac growth is above market but we believe we can do better in the Mac area in Japan. In Asia Pacific, Asia Pacific is doing an incredible job with the Mac growing 54%. It is our highest performing region in terms of growth. In the iPhone the iPhone was up over 500% in Asia Pacific. As you probably remember we talked about China on this call, but we also added Korea during the quarter and we added several other countries throughout the year after Q1 of last year. iPhone really drove an incredible amount of the total revenue growth you see on the [range] of 140%.

Q1 2010 Earnings Call: Apple in China, Japan and Korea

Analyst Ratings Newsletter

Don't Miss Your Daily Analyst Rating Email!!!

acf/newsletter-subscription-box

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Benjamin Reitzes' Stock Ratings

Melius Research Analyst

Overall Average Return

Smart Score

Overall Average Return Percentile

Number of Ratings

Recent Analyst Stock Rating News