J.P. Morgan raises estimates of Apple iPhone and Apple iPad shipments for last quarter

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, in a note to investors to be released Tuesday, is raising his estimate of the number of Apple iPhones and Apple iPads shipped by the Cupertino based tech giant in the quarter that just ended in March. The note was obtained by Apple Insider hours before the 9:30am EDT opening of the U.S. financial markets.

J.P. Morgan now believes that Apple shipped 31.1 million units if its iconic smartphone in the three month period that ended on Saturday. Previously, Morgan was expecting 28.1 million iPhones to be shipped in what is the company's fiscal second quarter. Moskowitz says that he thinks that retail investors (the public) are looking for a figure between 29 and 31 million. For the year, the analyst now sees Apple shipping 138.2 million units of its smartphone, up from a previous call of 128.7 million. Moskowitz expects the next-generation of the Apple iPhone to have a "thinner body and LTE capabilities," but the analyst didn't mention the biggest question on everyone's mind: how big is the screen? He did say that he expects the new iPhone to appear in the second half of this year.

As for the Apple iPad, Moskowitz raised his fiscal Q2 shipping estimate to 13.8 million tablets vs. his previous computation of 10.1 million shipped in the March quarter. For all of 2012, the analyst sees shipments of 69.6 million Apple iPads vs. his old estimate of 59.8 million tablets.

The next earnings report for Apple will be released on April 24th at 5pm EDT after the 4pm EDT close of the market. Last quarter Apple earned $13 billion on sales of 37 million Apple iPhone units and 15 million Apple iPad 2 tablets. Moskewitz has raised his prediction of Apple's year-end stock price to $715 from a previous guess of $625. But on Monday, Topeka Capital Markets made the headlines by initiating coverage of Apple by calling for a price target of $1001. The stock closed Monday at $618.63, up 53 percent year to date. Apple is now the most valuable publicly traded company on the planet, and while there is still much of the year left, it sure makes Investor's Business Daily's earlier prediction look bad.

source: AppleInsider