Analyst: Apple will hit $600 in 18 months

Apple's stock price repeatedly rose this week to finally break the $200 mark yesterday in afternoon trading, but one financial analyst expects the Cupertino-based company to reach $600 within 18 months. "There's so much growth to look forward to for the iPhone," said Stephen Coleman, chief investment officer at Daedalus Capital. Coleman said Apple gets roughly 30 percent of iPhone fees charged by carriers, according to Bloomberg, while Wall Street estimates place Apple's slice of the revenues somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent.

Apple this year stands as the fifth-best performer on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, with monumental growth from its Mac computer sales helping the company to report another record quarter. Helped by steady iPhone sales both in the U.S. and overseas, Apple hopes to reach its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. The company had sold nearly 1.4 million handsets in the U.S. alone by the end of September -- prior to the busy holiday shopping season -- and could announce as many as 5 million sales during the Macworld Expo in January.

Filed under: Investor, industry, Apple
Other story tags: financial, stock