Apple Seen Boosting Share Buybacks after Blockbuster Results

Apple Inc's blockbuster results and a ballooning cash pile may prompt the company to boost share buybacks and dividends this year, with some analysts expecting the iPhone maker to return more than $200 billion to investors.. . Apple's shares were set to open 8.3 per cent higher on Wednesday, after the company posted the biggest ever quarterly profit reported by a public corporation.. . Apple sold a record 74.5 million iPhones in the quarter and reported a 70 per cent surge in Chinasales.. . "We had to increase our cell widths and chart heights after Apple's blow-out December-quarter print," RBC Capital Markets analysts wrote, raising their price target to $130 from $123.. . At least 13 brokerages raised their price targets on the stock.. . Cantor Fitzgerald was the most bullish with a price target of $160 - implying a market valuation of more than $900 billion by the end of the year.. . The stock closed at $109.14 on Tuesday. It has risen 39 per cent in the past 12 months, adding more than $177 billion to the company's market capitalization. That's nearly half the market value of Exxon Mobil Corp, the second-largest listed US company.. . With a cash pile of $178 billion, Apple may increase its capital return program to more than $200 billion over three years, RBC Capital Markets analysts said.. . Apple said last April it would return more than $130 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015. The company is due to update its capital return program in April.. . Analysts also expect Apple to continue to benefit from growth in China and a surge in new customers, including those making the switch to Apple from smartphones using Google Inc'sAndroid software.. . "We believe that our thesis on Apple is playing out, that Apple's ecosystem will drive share gain over original equipment manufacturers focusing on specs," Oppenheimer & Co analysts wrote in a note titled "A Juggernaut Named Apple".. . Apple said it would release its next product, the Apple Watch, in April and reach 40 company stores in greater China by mid-2016.. . "We believe that Apple is on the cusp of multiple new product launches that are likely to reinvigorate earnings growth relative to Street expectations," analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote.. . Apple's shares were trading at $117.40 before the bell. Based on projected earnings growth, the stock should trade at $132.80, according to StarMine's Intrinsic Value model.. . Copyright @ Thomson Reuters 2015.

Apple Seen Boosting Share Buybacks after Blockbuster Results

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