The most bullish Apple analyst is back - and he thinks it's going to be worth over $1 trillion in 12 months

AP

• Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co analyst Brian White believes Apple will be worth over $1 trillion in the next 12 months.
• He's the most bullish analyst covering Apple at the moment.

Is Apple worth $1.19 trillion?

That's the call Monness Crespi Hardt & Co analyst Brian White made Wednesday, when he initiated coverage of the world's most valuable publicly traded stock.

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His price target is $235, which is the highest Apple price target among 51 analysts, according to Bloomberg data. The next highest price target is $220 from Steven Pelayo at HSBC.

At that price target, Apple would have a market value of $1.19 trillion. Its market cap was $877 billion at close yesterday.

"We view Apple as one of the most underappreciated stocks in the world with a valuation that remains depressed and our expectation that the company is poised to cross the $1 trillion market capitalization milestone over the next 12 months," White wrote.

He gave three reasons to expect an increase in Apple's stock price.

1. Apple is likely to discuss additional capital return on its second-quarter earnings call. "We believe the company could raise its capital return program from $300 billion through March 2019 to a range of $400 billion to $500 billion," he wrote.

2. The fact that Apple isn't showing signs of an iPhone X-powered sales "super-cycle" is actually a good thing, meaning that Apple's sales don't have as pronounced peaks. White sees it as a "durable cycle" and forecasts that Apple will push "deeper into the luxury smartphone market."

3. He's also a believer in Apple's "services" division, and points out that Apple is well-positioned to make more money as "more 'things' become a computer."

White was previously a technology analyst at Drexel Hamilton, where he covered Apple as well as other technology stocks.

At Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co, he's the head of equity research of internet and software, and will be covering Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Snap among 18 companies.