In a note to clients — as reported by “Barron’s” (http://macte.ch/io80W) — international Strategy and Investment Group analyst Abhey Lamba raised his price target on shares of Apple to US$400 from $370, while reiterating a Buy rating.
He says results of a recent survey the firm conducted lead him to believe Apple will hold onto 60% of the tablet market in 2011, despite incursions by Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows, and the Palm WebOS platform. Lamba is modeling 27 million iPads to be sold by Apple in the fiscal year ending in September, which is higher by 1.5 million units than Lamba’s previous estimate. His figure for the quarter just ended is 6.7 million units. Lamba is projecting 50 million units for the entire tablet industry this calendar year.
The analyst also raised his estimate for the current quarter’s Mac shipments to 4.5 million. That’s higher by half a million units, as Apple has been aggressive in its pricing with the line, and Lamba detects strong demand.
