Accounting Rules Change Could Up Apple’s Reported Earnings by 44%

YTD AAPL chart courtesy of Yahoo! Finance

Apple (AAPL) has had a very good 2009 so far based on what I’ve read and share price charts like the one above. And, this news from CNN/Fortune…

Apple’s 2009 earnings up nearly 44% under new accounting rules — analyst

…sure sounds like good news to my non-expert ears.

Apple’s stock close down slightly yesterday (Thu., Sept. 24) at $183.82. It has been hovering near Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster’s $186 target price for the past couple of days. This is a point when an analyst usually has to make a decision to say what will happen next with the stock’s price: Up or down. Munster decided to predict AAPL moving higher by giving it a new target price of $235 (26% above the $186 target price).

Will the increased reported earnings because of the accounting change push AAPL higher? Honestly, I haven’t the faintest idea. I often hear analysts talk abuot share price changes being “previously factored in” in anticipation of expected changes like this accounting rules change. Is this the case here?

The thing of real interest earnings-wise (IMHO) will be 2009 holiday sales.

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