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Our Apple stock forecast for 2015 anticipates another good year for Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL).
The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant has been on a major roll of late. AAPL stock has risen more than 40% in 2014. Its market cap of nearly $657 billion is the largest by far of any company in the world.
Now Apple is set up for record profits in 2015. Sales of the iPhone 6 show no signs of letting up, and the company has a completely new product category on the horizon in the Apple Watch.
It also has enough cash - $155 billion as of Sept. 30 - to finance its visionary strategy for years to come.
Here's the breakdown of what's fueling this bullish Apple stock forecast for 2015...
Apple Stock Forecast 2015: An iPhone Company Now More than Ever
The iPhone is by far Apple's most important product. It accounts for more than half of Apple's profits. The latest models, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, continue to sell almost as fast as Apple can make them.
Demand is so crazy that BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman suspects Apple is hoarding the latest models for sale in its own retail stores. A check of third-party sellers found limited supplies of the low-end 16GB models and none of the pricier 64GB and 128GB models.
This means Apple will deliver great news to investors on Jan. 27 when the company reports Q1 2015 earnings. Sales of the iPhone could surpass 70 million units in the current quarter, which would be a 37% year-over-year increase. Depending on how well Apple's other units perform, numbers like that could increase profits by more than 20%.
Such popularity bodes well for the whole first half of 2015. Higher-than-expected sales of the iPhone 5 models helped AAPL deliver upside surprises in the March and June quarters. Look for the iPhone 6 to do the same.
And by the mid-year, Apple stock will have this new catalyst...
About the Author
David Zeiler, Associate Editor for Money Morning at Money Map Press, has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including 18 spent at The Baltimore Sun. He has worked as a writer, editor, and page designer at different times in his career. He's interviewed a number of well-known personalities - ranging from punk rock icon Joey Ramone to Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Over the course of his journalistic career, Dave has covered many diverse subjects. Since arriving at Money Morning in 2011, he has focused primarily on technology. He's an expert on both Apple and cryptocurrencies. He started writing about Apple for The Sun in the mid-1990s, and had an Apple blog on The Sun's web site from 2007-2009. Dave's been writing about Bitcoin since 2011 - long before most people had even heard of it. He even mined it for a short time.
Dave has a BA in English and Mass Communications from Loyola University Maryland.