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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJ INDICES: ^ DJI) Monday failed to hold it together, plummeting 0.89% at 10:05 am EST. The COVID-19 vaccine situation improved afterwards Modern released the full results of its phase 3 study, but the news was not enough to push the markets higher. Moderna found a vaccine efficacy of 94.1% against COVID-19, with 100% efficacy against severe cases of COVID-19.
Actions of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) got a boost after receiving a hike in analysts’ price target on optimism of the 5G upgrade. Meanwhile, shares of salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) collapsed on a relationship that the company’s acquisition of Slack (NYSE: WORK) is coming tomorrow.
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Apple gets a higher price target on 5G optimism
Asking people what they will do is not a very reliable method of predicting what they are doing in reality intention to do. Surveys often indicate that a large percentage of NetflixThe user base would cancel or downgrade their subscriptions in the face of a rise in prices, but Netflix has regularly raised prices over the years without suffering any kind of significant customer exodus.
Since surveys are unreliable, buying a stock based on a survey result is probably not a good idea. However, stock analysts need to find reasons to talk about their favorite stocks. On Monday, Morgan Stanley raised its Apple stock price target from $ 171 to $ 191, citing the results of a survey of 3,500 people that indicated strong smartphone buying intentions driven by 5G technology.
Morgan Stanley pointed to long lead times for the iPhone 12 Pro and strong initial demand from US wireless carriers as supporting evidence. According to Morgan Stanley, Apple will outperform other smartphone companies in terms of upgrades, with a demand for 268 million iPhone shipments in fiscal year 2021. The current analyst estimate for iPhone shipments is just 213 million.
It is still unclear how much consumers really care about 5G technology. No one has put forward a particularly strong argument for technology, other than “it’s faster”. How willing are consumers to upgrade their expensive phones during a pandemic and without the economic stimulus they had at the beginning of the year? We’ll have a good idea when Apple releases its quarterly results in January.
Shares of Apple were up about 1.9% on Monday morning. The tech stock has gained around 62% so far this year.
Salesforce could announce the acquisition of Slack tomorrow
CNBC reported Monday that Salesforce is close to announcing the acquisition of collaboration software provider Slack. CNBC sources say the announcement will come after the market closes on Tuesday, right next to Salesforce’s quarterly report.
While an exact price won’t be known until the deal is announced, Salesforce is expected to pay a premium at Slack’s current price, according to CNBC sources. Sources also say the deal is expected to be half in cash and half in shares.
With Slack currently valued at around $ 24 billion after Monday’s surge, a deal for the software company would be the largest acquisition Salesforce has ever made. It would also be one of the largest software acquisitions in history.
Slack’s biggest competitor is Microsoft Teams. Microsoft bundles Teams with some of its subscription-based Office plans for business, giving the business a key benefit. Salesforce could do something similar with Slack, pushing the software across its large existing user base.
Shares of Salesforce were down 3.5% Monday morning, while Slack shares were up about 3.6%.
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