Apple Inc. (AAPL) Now Targeted for $885 by Wedbush

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been generating a lot of buzz over the last several months, with all of the speculation, rumors and innuendo regarding a new generation of device. But now that Apple has just confirmed a press event for Sept. 12, buzz has increased around the company to the point that a couple of analysts have upped their already exorbitant price targets to unheard-of levels – and just in the next few months.

Wedbush Securities has just updated a research note on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and based on information regarding the company’s manufacturing partners, it has upped its price target from $800 a share up to a staggering $885. The basis of this comes from not only the confirmed unveiling of the iPhone 5 arrival, plus also reports of a smaller iPad, other new devices and perhaps a future Apple television set.

There is enough information that Wedbush analyst Scott Sutherland also raised his revenue projects for the rest of the year and the earnings-per-share forecast for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), increasing the former to $156.6 billion (from 155.9 billion) and listing the latter at $44.04 per share from $43.68 previously. He sees Apple selling 24 million iPhones during the fourth quarter of calendar year 2012, up from 21.6 million – and he says part of the increase is due to the expected installation of LTE chips in this version of the device, which would make it very contemporary with the ongoing push for 4G LTE networks by the major wireless carriers – Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) – which have all indicated intentions to sell the new iPhone.

And with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) perhaps opening the door to take more smartphone market share from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., there seems to be a chance for Apple to get the upper hand in the litany of device unveilings over the next few weeks from rival companies like Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).  This would be a good sign for investors like hedge-fund manager Julian Robertson of Tiger Management.