Piper Jaffray Maintains Overweight on Apple (AAPL)

Piper Jaffray is out with its report today on Apple AAPL, maintaining Overweight as AAPL's iPhone launches on the Verizon VZ network today. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "iPhone pre-orders for Verizon customers sold out on 2/3, and online pre-orders for any customer also sold out yesterday (2/9), suggesting higher-than-expected levels of demand. We believe that strong pre-orders suggest our iPhone numbers may be conservative; we may be over-compensating for cannibalized AT&T iPhone sales. Maintain Overweight rating and PT of $483 based on 18x CY12E EPS of $26.85. Our 18x multiple is in line with our estimated LT EPS growth rate of 18%." At the time of posting, shares of AAPL were trading at $356.52, down 0.46% from Wednesday's close.