Wall Street Likes the iPhone 5

When Apple introduced the iPhone 5 on Wednesday, Tim Cook described it as „the biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone“. Grammatical questions aside, numerous blog comments indicate that it might not have been a big enough thing for many. Critics dismissed the iPhone’s new features (mainly the larger screen and LTE) as standard in high-end Android phones and slammed Apple for charging $29 for an adapter required to use 30-pin peripherals with the iPhone’s new Lightning connector. Others however seemed very content with the way Apple improved what is already a well-refined, mature product.

Wall Street analysts, to a large extent, appear to agree with the latter: most analysts have upped their target for Apple’s stock in response to Wednesday’s presentation. And the market has reacted accordingly. On Thursday, Apple’s stock closed at $682.98, up 3.4 percent since markets closed on Tuesday, the last day before the big announcement.

A look at the chart suggests Tim Cook’s statement quoted above may not be so wrong after all: in terms of the initial reaction, the iPhone 5 was the biggest thing to happen to Apple’s stock price since the original iPhone.