New York City-based analysts at Soleil last week reiterated their "buy" rating on Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
, but reduced the target price from US$95 to $75.
In addition, analyst Shaw Wu of American Technology Research last week called the consensus estimates for the September quarter for Apple "unreasonably aggressive." While Wall Street is looking for Apple sales of $4.94 billion, Wu's estimate is much lower, at $4.58 billion.
Why the changes in attitude?
Shares Decline
Apple's shares have soared more than 10 times during the three years through this January, mostly on enthusiasm about its iPods. The shares peaked at $86.40 in early January, but have since dropped by 40 percent to about $52, primarily on worries that the portable MP3 player fad is fading fast.
Apple's fate doesn't rest solely on iPods, however. Performance in its Macintosh personal computers line is poised to improve, after a major retooling. New Macintosh models, which feature Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) chips, can run on both Apple's operating system and Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows 
.
Today, Apple Macintosh computers account for only about 4 percent of U.S. and European personal-computer sales. However, research by Needham & Co., another Wall Street firm, posits that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's market share could triple over the next decade. Apple held nearly 10 percent of the U.S. and European markets just over a decade ago.
The iPod -- and related products -- have come to account for more than half of Apple's $17.3 billion in sales, but sales growth should come in at about 60 percent this year, down from 213 percent in 2005 and 469 percent in 2004, research by Needham indicates.
As interest in Apple increases, market bulls believe that the shares will jump anywhere from 45 percent to 75 percent in the next year.
Research backs up these beliefs.
MacBooks Hot
UBS analyst Benjamin A. Reitzes said that his research shows solid demand for MacBooks, more than offsetting quarter-over-quarter decreases in sales for iPods.
Apple may deliver a "breakout" fourth quarter, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, due to the back-to-school selling season, the availability of the MacBook, as well as Apple's "Boot Camp" software patch that enables Mac users to run Microsoft's Windows on their computers.
Apple's stock is considered a good buy by many analysts, even as shares are trading at about 25 times the consensus estimate for this fiscal year's earnings. Although a price/earnings multiple of 25 may look steep, it's reasonable in view of the company's growth prospects, some analysts maintain. Earnings are likely to grow 20 percent a year over the next five years, and the company has a lot of cash on hand to weather any storm -- $8.23 billion.
There may be even more good news Wednesday, when Apple releases its fiscal third-quarter results.
Credit Suisse last week raised by 45 percent its estimates for MacBook laptop sales in the quarter, to 450,000 units, noting that Mac shipments should be up 16 percent from the previous quarter.
Analysts are looking for earnings of 44 cents per share on sales of $4.4 billion, according to a new poll by Thomson Financial.
Apple said that it expects to post earnings of about 39 cents to 43 cents per share, on sales between $4.2 billion and $4.4 billion.
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