Buy Apple (AAPL) On Today's Weakness - Citi

Earlier, analysts at Citi reiterated their Buy rating and $500 price target on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) saying today's weakness represented a buying opportunity.

Shares of the gadget maker were under heavy pressure on reports of iPhone and iPad build plan reductions.

Analyst Richard Gardner said it does appear that Apple is experiencing constraints on flexible printed circuit boards for iPhone manufactured in Thailand. That said, Gardner said analysis shows that Hon Hai's worst case shipments of iPhone are 30M, which is well above the sell-side consensus of 25-28M. He remains positive in his iPhone estimate of 28 million.

On the iPad, Gardner continues to forecast 14.5M units for the fourth quarter. He also notes that iPad is only responsible for 10-15% of Apple's total gross profit in quarter versus 65% for the iPhone. Even if iPads fall short by 1-1.5 the company is still on track to sell 38M+ units this year, which is up from 15M last year. "This is impressive performance, in our opinion, considering that the global consumer notebook market is just 135M units per year," he comments.

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Apple click here. For more ratings news on Apple click here.

Shares of Apple closed at $395.28 yesterday.

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