Apple again most valuable company thanks to expected video service
Investors are flocking to Apple in the hope of increasing revenues from a new video service. With a stock market value of $920 billion, the technology group is now once again the most valuable company on Wall Street, ahead of Microsoft.
On Friday, the stock continued to rise in pre-market trading. Numerous analysts gave their thumbs up to the movie streaming service, which is to be presented at the company's headquarters in California on Monday and with which Apple wants to move away from its dependence on the iPhone. The smartphone, with which Apple revolutionized the mobile phone industry, has not been selling as often as it used to.
Insiders expect Apple to offer the video service worldwide, heating up competition with top dogs Netflix and Amazon.
The potential revenue from subscription fees for playing movies directly from the Internet has been the focus of investors for some time, as Apple's revenue fell five percent to $84.3 billion last quarter (ended Dec. 29) due to lower iPhone demand. According to insiders, Apple also wants to enter into cooperations with media companies in order to expand the service offering even further.
Apple could secure annual revenues of seven to ten billion dollars through its TV offering, explained analysts at brokerage firm Wedbush. The announcement of a video service is also possibly only the prelude to a larger transformation for Apple this year.
JP Morgan analysts expect that the new offering could attract more paying customers to the existing music streaming service. This could significantly increase revenues. Experts at brokerage firm Nedham also see the TV plans as a step in the right direction. They upgraded Apple shares to Strong Buy from Buy and raised their price target by $45 to $225. (SDA)
Photo: Apple
