Mac Gains Momentum in the Enterprise PC Market

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac sales comfortably outpaced the overall PC market last quarter, in which the company sold 3.76 million Macs at a 28% growth over the year ago quarter. Comparatively, the overall PC market saw a 3% contraction. ^[1] According to a recent report, Mac is making progress in the enterprise PC market as well. ^[2] Apple experienced a growth of 66% in the last quarter compared to just 4.5% growth of the overall enterprise PC market. These are positive signs for Apple, but a larger threat to HP (NYSE:HPQ) and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), who thrive on selling larger volumes at lower price levels.

We currently maintain a $430 price estimate for Apple stock, which implies a premium to market price.

Outlook for Mac Market Share

Mac PCs accounts for about 16% of our price estimate for Apple stock. We believe that Mac’s share in the global PC market will continue to increase from around 5% in 2010 to 9% by the end of our forecast period. However, given the progress that Apple is making in the consumer and enterprise PC market, our forecast estimate for Mac market share could prove conservative.

Given a more aggressive scenario where Mac notebook market share increases towards 15% by the end of our forecast period, there could be upside of 7% to our estimate for Apple’s stock value. On top of that, faster growth in software, services and peripherals related to Mac PCs could point towards even greater upside potential.

See our complete analysis for Apple stock here

1. Apple FY Q2 2011 earnings conference cal transcript, SeekingAlpha, April 20th 2011 [↩]
2. Apple makes huge inroads in enterprise as corporate Mac sales surge 66%, AppleInsider quoting Needham & Company as the source, May 20th 2011 [↩]