Apple Inc. (AAPL) Stock Price: Shares Soar As Several iPhone 7 And 7 Plus Sell Out
Initial worries about iPhone sales appear to have been overblown. Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares jumped $3.80, or 3.4 percent, to close at $115.57 on Thursday, after reports surfaced that several iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smartphones are already sold out ahead of its Friday launch.
Following CEO Tim Cook's unveiling of the new iPhone on Sept. 7, Apple’s price of shares dipped five percent in the two days, but the tech giant has rebounded from a low of $102.53 on Sept. 12 with three consecutive days of gains.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company says it has already run out of the jet black iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus in every color and aren't available for walk-in customers for the official release Friday. The iPhones can still be ordered online, but some models may not arrive for consumers until November.
"We couldn't be happier with the initial response to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and we are looking forward to beginning sales through our retail stores and partners around the world," says Apple in a statement.
The positive news comes at about the same time rival smartphone maker Samsung was forced to recall the Galaxy Note 7 due to battery fires.
Gene Munster, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, expects 11 percent growth in iPhone revenue for the iPhone 7 cycle.
"Based on our historical tracking of iPhone lead times and current lead times listed on Apple.com, we found that average iPhone 7 lead times are around 1-2 weeks as of today with five days to launch, which compares to 7-10 days for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S," Munster wrote in his note on Monday. "We note the 6S had a slightly longer time between announcement and launch, thus more time to build inventory to handle initial demand. The iPhone 7 Plus lead times are 2-3 weeks on average compared to 3-4 weeks for both the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6S Plus."
Munster has a $151 target on Apple's stock. On Wednesday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani increased his price target for Apple to $117 and gave it an “outperform” rating.
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