Susquehanna raised its price target on Apple Inc's stock and increased its iPhone shipment estimates as it sees the company ramping up smartphone production, now that Thailand-related constraints have been resolved.

The revisions are based on positive sell-through data combined with recent supply-chain checks, which suggests that earlier component constraints have largely been resolved and build plans have increased for the fourth and first quarter. Susquehanna wrote in a note to clients.

The brokerage raised its iPhone shipment estimates for the first quarter to 30.3 million units from the 27.1 million it forecast earlier.

Demand appears solid as iPhone 4S continues to ship in one to two weeks online and stores are generally sold out for in-store reservation and pickup.

The 4S is Apple's fifth iteration of its hugely popular iPhone smartphone range and was released to the public on October 4 this year.

Susquehanna sees strong holiday sales of the company's iPad tablets as well as new product launches such as the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 as significant positive catalysts to the stock.

The brokerage reiterated its positive rating on the stock.

Shares of the Cupertino, California-based Apple were down marginally in pre-market trade on Wednesday. They closed at $395.95 on Tuesday on Nasdaq.

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(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

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