Apple: Everyone On Earth Raises Targets; Zeroing In On $300

How high can Apple (AAPL) shares fly?

After the company late yesterday posted unbelievably good results for its fiscal second quarter ended March, almost all of analysts who track the company have raised their price targets and ratcheted up their earnings expectations. Not only did the company report blowout March quarter revenues and profits, but there is a sense that June could be even better, as the iPad continues to jump off the shelves, and investors snap up newly revised MacBook Pro laptops. And let’s not forget that there’s a new iPhone coming soon, which should help drive further gains as we move into the second half of the year. Throw in back-to-school, and a potential launch on Verizon, and you have plenty of kindling to fire additional gains in Apple shares from here.

While the general consensus is that the iPhone was the big driver in the quarter, all aspects of the company seem to beat expectations. I liked this comment from JMP Securities analyst Samuel Wilson about the quarter: “Hard to say what did better than expected; it all did better than expected.”

Oh, and by the way: Absolutely no one is taking the company’s June guidance seriously; the company sees revenue down slightly from March, despite the arrival of the iPad; no one believes their EPS guidance either.

The stock has become universally beloved on the Street; after all, not many tech companies are growing revenues at a 49% clip – which is what Apple did in the March quarter. Also keep in mind that the company’s mammoth cash pile keeps growing, and now exceeds $41.7 billion.

Here’s a quick rundown on the Street’s revised targets for the stock:

• Clyde Montevirgen, Standard & Poor’s: Buy rating; new target $295, up from $270.
• Samuel Wilson, JMP Securities: Market Outperform rating; target to $290, from $260.
• Peter Misek, Canaccord Adams: Buy rating; target to $325, from $300.
• Robert Cihra, Caris & Co.: Buy rating; target to $310, from $300.
• Tavis McCourt, Morgan Keegan: Outperform rating; target now $325.
• Keith Bachman, BMO Capital: Outperform rating, target now $290, up from $265.
• Doug Reid, Thomas Weisel Partners: Overweight rating; target to $320, from $300.
• Andy Hargreaves, Pacific Crest: Outperform; target to $330, from $300.
• Jeffrey Fidicaro, Susquehanna: Positive rating; target to $300, from $275.
• Shaw Wu, Kaufman Bros.: Buy rating; target to $315, from $305.
• Scott Craig, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Repeats Buy rating; target to $300 from $260.
• Mike Abramsky, RBC Capital: Outperform rating; target to $350, from $275.
• Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray: Overweight rating; target to $323, from $299.
• Toni Sacconaghi, Bernstein Research: Overweight rating; target to $300, from $275.
• Yair Reiner, Oppenheimer: Outperform rating; target to $320, from $285.
• Mark Moskowitz, J.P. Morgan: Overweight rating; target to $316m, from $305.
• Richard Gardner, Citigroup: Buy rating; target to $320, from $300.
• Phil Cusick, Macquarie: Outperform rating; target to $325, from $250.
• Bill Shope: Credit Suisse: Outperform rating; target to $315, from $300.
• Ben Reitzes, Barclays Capital: Overweight rating; target to $315, from $300.
• Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley: Overweight rating; target to $275, from $250.
• Chris Whitmore, Deutsche Bank: Buy rating; target to $350 from $325.

AAPL is up $14.11, or 5.8%, to $258.70.

In case you were wondering, Apple now has a market cap of $234.6 billion; Microsoft is $274.6 billion. If MSFT stands still, Apple would surpass it in market cap at about $302 a share.