Apple (AAPL) Will Return to Growth Piper Jaffray’s Munster Tells Bloomberg TV
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple (AAPL) - Get Report will release the financial results for its 2016 third quarter after the market close on Tuesday, July 26. Analysts are expecting the tech giant to report a year over year decline in earnings per share and revenue for the three month period ended in June.
For the most recent quarter analysts are looking for earnings of $1.38 per share on revenue of $42.01 billion. Last year Apple posted earnings of $1.85 per share on revenue of $49.6 billion for the 2015 third quarter.
"Apple has been in decline for the last few quarters, it's going to return to growth," Piper Jaffray senior research analyst and Apple expert Gene Munster said on Bloomberg TV's "Bloomberg Go" on Tuesday morning.
"I think when the growth returns, going from down 8% in 2016 they call it up 10% in 2017 in terms of revenue, I think that's going to be the key metric," Munster continued.
Investors are looking at the upcoming iPhone 7 with disappointment, Munster says, but even so he believes the company can return to growth. "I think that's going to be a positive for the stock and so I think there is a lot of outperformance between now and the end of the year on Apple," he said.
Even if the iPhone 7 turns out to be a disappointment, 2017 will see the release of the 10 year anniversary iPhone, which will be "a much different form factor," Munster said. Munster believes that investors should own Apple in anticipation of the good things to come, despite recent rough waters.
Shares of Apple are down by 0.08% to $99.75 on Tuesday morning.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings has set a "buy" rating and a score of B on Apple stock. This is driven by a number of strengths, which TheStreet Ratings believes should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks it covers.
The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity and expanding profit margins. TheStreet Ratings feels its strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.
TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: AAPL