Wedbush Securities Raises Estimates On Apple After Earlier Than Expected iPad 2 Release

Yesterday, Apple AAPL and Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2 as expected, although there were some positive surprises. With a March 11th shipment date being sooner than had been expected, Wedbush is increasing its estimates modestly and continue to be buyers of Apple shares. Apple will ship the iPad 2 on March 11th in the U.S. and March 25th internationally, mostly across Europe, N. America, Australia, and New Zealand. This is earlier than expectations for early April or even late March. To reflect this and a somewhat better device that should attract demand, Wedbush is increasing its revenue and EPS estimates for FY11 and FY12 with a slight gross margin offset. Wedbush is reiterating its Outperform rating and PT of $430 as it finds shares attractively valued. The price target is derived from our DCF analysis and represents a 15x multiple on its FY12 cash-adjusted EPS estimate. This is a modest discount to Wedbush's LT EPS growth estimates of 17%. AAPL is trading higher at $356.63