Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) Upgraded By Pacific Crest to Outperform

There are more upgrades for the Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) stock, though it has run quite a bit and has been regularly hitting new highs and creating new records.

Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest upgraded the stock to `Outperform' with a price target of $690 citing material improvements in yields of components for the next iPhone model.

He has estimated that including the new phone, expected to be unveiled on September 12, an additional 20 million units of its phones will be sold this year, topping his original estimates of 163 million units.

Hargreaves added that the upsides for the stock could range between $720 and $750 a share.

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"Our most recent round of supply checks suggests iPhone 5 component supplies is improving meaningfully. More specifically, we believe yield rates from in-cell panel makers have improved, which should support increased iPhone 5 production capacity in FQ4 (Sept.) and FQ1 (Dec.). Although we are not changing our iPhone unit estimates at this point, we have increased confidence that supply will not be a material constraint through FQ1 and see the potential for significant upside to our estimates if demand is as strong as we anticipate," Hargreaves wrote in a research note.

About four or five million nits of the new iPhone are expected to be sold in the current quarter and 20 million of the existing models, he said.

"There’s the potential for as much as $5 in extra EPS in fiscal 2013, on top of his existing $55.09 EPS estimate, he writes.

Hargreaves also repeats his claim that Apple may ship 10 million units of a smaller iPad, called the “iPad Mini,” in the December quarter, on top of 15.5 million of the existing model.

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