Edible Apple

Caris & Company analyst Robert Cihra last week issued a note to investors wherein he raised his stock target on Apple shares to $400 from a previous target of $375. Citing stunning iPad growth, Cihra writes that Apple essentially created its own growth through innovation while its competitors continue to wander around, lost “in a sea of otherwise commoditized hardware.”

For the current holiday quarter, Cihra anticipates 6.7 million iPad sales while also predicting upwards of 32 million in iPad sales for the 2011 fiscal year.

“A product that didn’t even exist a year ago… now leads an entire charge to thin-client access/computing architecture,” Cihra writes. And though an obvious statement, it really is incredible when you take a step back and think about it. Similarly, the fact that the iPhone know comprises the bulk of Apple’s profits these days is just as jaw-dropping considering that it’s just 3 year old.

And speaking of the iPhone, Cihra believes that Apple’s often-emulated but seldom duplicated smartphone will account for up to 40% of Apple’s 2011 growth with projected sales of 64 million units.

via AI