Apple Flags Despite Sterne Agee Initiation at 'Buy'

March 30, 2011

Apple (AAPL) has been mired in the red all morning, although it is moving off its low of $347.44 near mid-day, after Sterne Agee initiated coverage this morning with a "buy" rating and a $455 target. Analyst Shaw Wu, who takes over the segment from analyst Vijay Rakesh, also initiated on Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Ingram Micro (IM), Research in Motion (RIMM), Synaptics (SYNA) and Synnex (SNX). Wu rates Cisco and HP a "buy" and started the other stocks at "neutral," according to Barron's. Wu said investors still under-appreciate the growth in Apple's end-markets, as well as its ability transform existing markets and create new ones. "We think the beauty with the AAPL story is that the company doesn't need to win everyone over to continue its success. The company just needs to continue winning a fair share of its vast end markets."