Goldman Sachs Adds AAPL to Americas Conviction Buy List

by , 12:25 PM EDT, May 23rd, 2008

Apple (AAPL) has been added to the Goldman Sachs Americas conviction buy list. Apple is expected to benefit from the launch of the company's second generation iPhone that will work on the 3G GSM network and result in sharply higher phone sales for the second half of the year.

David Bailey, a Goldman Sachs analyst who watches Apple, raised his target price from US$185 to $220 and said that he expects Apple to nearly double its potential iPhone subscriber base this year.

"We continue to expect Apple to beat its 10 million unit goal for calendar year 2008 driven by broader global distribution and the availability of third-party applications, which should keep Apple well ahead of the competition," Mr. Bailey wrote on Thursday.

On May 12, SingTel announced plans to carry the iPhone in Singapore, India, Australia, and the Philippines. That should significantly increase Apple's customer base.

Mr. Bailey's estimate for iPhones sold in 2008 was set at 11 million units. That's in addition to the 3.7 million sold in 2007.

Switching to the subject of Mac sales, Mr. Bailey said: "We also expect Apple to continue to drive Mac unit growth three times the PC market this year."

After heavy profit taking amidst ever soaring prices for oil, AAPL dropped almost US$8.00 on Wednesday to $178.19. However, currently AAPL is trading at $180.80, up $3.75 for the day.

Expectations for Apple's worldwide sales of the new iPhone continue to drive AAPL up, but for every gain AAPL makes, bad economic news in the U.S. seems to stymie further growth -- subsequent to the general recovery from the $120 depths of March.

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