Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek this morning seeks to allay fears of a gross profit erosion at Apple (AAPL), writing that “concerns on serious gross margin deterioration are overdone,” and reiterating a Buy rating and a $500 price target.

Apple’s overall corporate gross profit margin will likely find a “floor” at 35%, he thinks, and perhaps range as high as 40% over the course of the next year. (Apple’s gross margin as a percentage of sales was 41.4% in the quarter ended in March, and 39.9% for the six-month period ending that month. Those numbers were down slightly from 41.7% and 41.2% for the corresponding periods a year earlier.)

Misek points out Apple is able to add $100 to the price of an iPhone for flash memory content that costs the company only $20 to $30 per part, leading to iPhone margin of 50%, the highest for any of its products. He expects a re-acceleration of iPhone sales based on the prospect Apple will have a “mid-market” iPhone in the $300 range (in other words, cost to the wireless operator, before subsidy), in addition to the expected iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5, which he expects in June of next year.

A cheaper iPhone at the mid-market would increase Apple’s addressable market by 500 million phones per year, and if such a device were made with a $180 cost of goods, every 10 million of them sold would add $1 to Apple’s per-share profit.

Misek also thinks Apple can maintain gross margin on the iPad at around 35% to 40% “over the medium term,” thanks to the higher-priced, more feature-rich models of the device.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek this morning seeks to allay fears of a gross profit erosion at Apple (AAPL), writing that “concerns on serious gross margin deterioration are overdone,” and reiterating a Buy rating and a $500 price target.

Apple’s overall corporate gross profit margin will likely find a “floor” at 35%, he thinks, and perhaps range as high as 40% over the course of the next year. (Apple’s gross margin as a percentage of sales was 41.4% in the quarter ended in March, and 39.9% for the six-month period ending that month. Those numbers were down slightly from 41.7% and 41.2% for the corresponding periods a year earlier.)

Misek points out Apple is able to add $100 to the price of an iPhone for flash memory content that costs the company only $20 to $30 per part, leading to iPhone margin of 50%, the highest for any of its products. He expects a re-acceleration of iPhone sales based on the prospect Apple will have a “mid-market” iPhone in the $300 range (in other words, cost to the wireless operator, before subsidy), in addition to the expected iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5, which he expects in June of next year.

A cheaper iPhone at the mid-market would increase Apple’s addressable market by 500 million phones per year, and if such a device were made with a $180 cost of goods, every 10 million of them sold would add $1 to Apple’s per-share profit.

Misek also thinks Apple can maintain gross margin on the iPad at around 35% to 40% “over the medium term,” thanks to the higher-priced, more feature-rich models of the device.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily