Even after a 34 percent year-to-date gain, Warren Buffett isn’t finished buying Apple Inc. AAPL 0.22%. Apparently, neither is Wall Street.
The same week Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B)’s 13F filing revealed Buffet more than doubled his stake in Apple in Q1, analysts from Canaccord Genuity and UBS both reiterated their bullish outlooks for the world’s largest public company.
For Canaccord analyst Michael Walkley, the Apple story is all about iPhone 8 sales.
“We anticipate strong demand for new iPhone products launching in September and have increased our 2018 iPhone estimates, leading to our increased price target,” Walkley explained. Canaccord maintains its Buy rating for Apple, but raised its target price for the stock from $165 to $180.
For UBS analyst Steven Milunovich, a shift in the way the market perceives Apple could help expand the company’s multiple.
According to Milunovich, if investors begin to share Buffett’s vision of Apple as more of a consumer product brand rather than a tech company, the stock could share the type of premium valuations that The Coca-Cola Co KO 0.5%, Procter & Gamble Co PG 0.15%, Nike Inc NKE 1.24% and others enjoy.
“Buffett views the iPhone brand as a moat to competition and believes people will keep buying iPhones much like people keep buying Coke,” Milunovich writes. “Such a view se-risks Apple and implies a multiple closer to 20x, similar to leading consumer brands.”
Today, Apple’s forward PE multiple stands…
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