this morning
Merrill Lynch’s Scott Craig raised his price target to $770 from $720,
Oppenheimer & Co.’s Ittai Kidron raised his price target to $800 from $680.
Toni Sacconaghi, Bernstein Research: Reiterates an Outperform on Apple stock
and a $750 price target. “We believe this is unambiguously negative for
Google and the Android ecosystem as it provides further evidence that
Android as well as design choices made by its OEM-users infringe on a number
of 3rd party patents, including Apple’s. The verdict could also be
marginally beneficial to Microsoft, given that carriers and handset OEMs
might look to incrementally support diversification (away from Android as an
alternative to Apple) in their portfolios going forward. That said, we don
’t think it is a game-changing loss for Android. Given the rapid pace of
innovation, relatively short product cycles, and global nature of the
smartphone market, we think it is very unlikely that Apple, Microsoft or any
third parties could strike a mortal blow to Android through litigation.”
Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray: Reiterates an Overweight rating on shares of
Apple and a $910 price target. “We believe that it is likely that other
lawsuits between Apple and other handset makers move toward a settlement,
given the precedent of the Samsung case. In these cases, we note that
software changes are the most likely competitive outcome (aside from
monetary exchanges). We do not believe further settlements are likely to
hamstring Android in any serious way. We continue to be confident in our 4
year outlook on mobile device share, which assumes that iOS and Android
further dominate the smartphone market with likely close to 85% share
combined by 2015. Overall we believe iPhone global smartphone share will
increase from 20% in CY12 to 32% in CY15.”
Amit Daryanani, RBC Capital: Reiterates an Outperform rating and a $700
price target. “We believe the recent jury verdict in favor of AAPL (vs.
Samsung) is a significant positive for AAPL as it establishes that Samsung
had infringed on multiple AAPL patents. The jury found that Samsung had
infringed upon 6 of AAPL’s patents and awarded $1.05B to AAPL (less that 1%
of AAPL’s cash position). We believe the fact that the Jury upheld AAPL’s
claims is important in sustaining AAPL’s dominance over handset vendors (
specially Android based). Furthermore, we suspect this may provide an offset
with regard to carriers who have been attempting to lower AAPL centric
subsides.” The ruling provides a “moral victory” ahead of the next iPhone
’s introduction, he writes.
William Power, RW Baird: Reiterates an Outperform rating and a $740 price
target. “The most immediate impact could be potential injunctions of
current products, though Android OEMs could be forced to consider changes to
software and product design longer-term. We would expect Google and its
hardware partners to develop work-arounds over time. Positive for Windows,
BlackBerry? A slowdown in Android activity due to patent uncertainty and
possible injunctions could open a window of opportunity for the coming
Windows 8 and BlackBerry 10 platforms. Any negative repercussions for
Android could be construed as directionally positive for NOK and RIM, though
both still face an uphill battle in our judgment.”
Colin Sebastian, RW Baird: Reiterates an Outperform rating on Google shares
and a $750 price target. “While the verdict in the Apple patent trial
presents some risks to the Android market, we believe the headlines may be
somewhat more dramatic than real outcome. For example, despite potentially
higher costs for Android device OEMs, we believe the smartphone market is
important enough for them to adapt to patent rulings. In addition, key
consumer features and functionality of smart devices extend well beyond the
patents in question.”
Doug Anmuth, JP Morgan: Reiterates an Overweight rating on Google shares and
a a $670 price target. “We believe the Apple-Samsung patent verdict out
Friday night after the close is a negative for the Android ecosystem as it
likely puts more pressure on Android OEMs to clearly differentiate devices
and it suggests the courts may be willing to tightly enforce software and
design patents in the future. For Google and Motorola in particular, the
ruling may help shape the development of future devices and also put more
pressure on Google to increase Motorola’s market share in smartphones. We
believe Google shares could see some near-term weakness on the ruling.”
Mark Newman, Bernstein Research: Reiterates an Outperform rating on Samsung
shares and a ₩1,950,000 price target. There are four possible
scenarios, with the worst hurting Samsung profit by 6%, but he thinks the
company will avoid the worst: “Scenario 1: Samsung gets a slap on the wrist
and a fine, but no further impact as product bans get granted a stay as the
appeals process goes on. In the appeals court, Samsung manages to overturn
the verdict; Scenario 2: Injunctions are granted on all infringing devices [
...] on September 21st. Samsung is unable to sell these devices for the
foreseeable future. We estimate this will have a 1.4% impact on Samsung’s
2013 EPS [...] Scenario 3: Apple successfully argues that newer devices
should also receive a product ban and Samsung is unsuccessful in getting a
stay on these bans. We believe this is possible but unlikely to cover all
Samsung’s devices [...] If we assume 80% of all Samsung smartphones cannot
be sold in the US, this would be a 6.3% impact on Samsung’s 2013 EPS.
Scenario 4: Samsung negotiates and agrees to pay Apple a license fee on all
Android smartphones. If we assume $5 royalty for each smartphone and tablet
sold worldwide (similar to what we believe Samsung pays to Microsoft), this
would have a 3.8% impact on Samsung’s 2013 EPS.
