Apple: A Secular Growth Company

Close on the heels of Apple Inc. AAPL delivering $0.02 a share higher than the estimates, Global Equities Research's Trip Chowdhry believes Apple is a secular growth story. The analyst thinks the biggest and the longest upgrade cycle for iPhone has just commenced.

While stating that the tech bellwether validated nearly every data point of the Global Equities Research's earlier report, the brokerage expects market share gain for iPhone, which has a 12 percent market share in the smartphone segment. The firm thinks that the company could gain from new geographies like India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam.

Trip Chowdhry cited the following factors as support for his thesis:

• Focus on senior citizens.
• Adoption has just commenced for enterprises.
• Strongest ecosystem for developer.
• Its own SDK for every initiative.
• Strongest app economy enabling an app for all.

The brokerage noted the first quarter revenue outlook of $76 billion–$78 billion exceeds the consensus's outlook of $75.3 billion.

Following the in-line expectations, Trip Chowdhry maintains an Overweight rating and a target price of $155 on the stock. This implies over a 30 percent upside potential from the current levels.

At last check, Apple was down 2.77 percent at $114.97.