Apple shares rise on product hopes
By Bloomberg News
Special to CNET News.com
April 30, 1999, 4:00 p.m. PT
Apple Computer shares rose as much as 9.6 percent on optimism that the maker of the iMac home computer will unveil new products and benefit from rising consumer demand.
Cupertino, California-based Apple closed the day at 46, an increase of almost 7 percent with 12.9 million shares trading hands, making it among the most active stocks in U.S. markets. Shares of the company earlier touched 47 1/8 and have gained 12 percent this year.
"There's a lot of anticipation that Apple will show a bunch of new products from now though August. That's creating a buying interest and good volume in the stock," said Charles Wolf, a Warburg Dillon Read LLC analyst, who rates Apple a "buy."
One of the more anticipated new products due in the next few months: a new notebooks for the consumer market, a segment which the company has not competed in for some time
Apple also is set to kick off its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California, on May 10, and the semi-annual MacWorld show in New York in July. New products are historically announced at these shows.
Optimism about the PC market in general may be benefiting Apple as well, analysts say. Recent reports show that PC shipments rose a more-than-expected 19 percent in the first quarter. That's seen as positive for Apple, Wolf said. Meanwhile, PC sales at large electronics stores in Japan rose 67 percent in the week ended April 11 from the year-earlier period, Nikkei Market Access reported. Japan traditionally has been one of Apple's biggest markets.
Another factor, more large investment houses are getting on board and encouraging their customers to buy into Apple, said Lou Mazzuchelli, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Schutte raised his rating on the stock to "recommend list" from "market perform."
"I think the shockwave is finally starting to hit from Goldmans' upgrade," Mazzuchelli noted. Apple is also starting to get more aggressive in promoting itself to Wall Street analysts and asking why it isn't valued as highly as other PC companies, comments which analysts are paying attention to, he noted.
The company may start using some of its $2.8 billion in cash for stock buybacks, which would help boost the share price, Schutte noted in his report.
News.com's Jim Davis contributed to this report.
Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.
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