Stock Analyst Upgrades AAPL speculating online services

WSJ.com has post on a UBS analyst upgrading Apple inc (AAPL).

UPDATE: Apple Upgraded On Hopes For New Service Platform

   By Dan Gallagher

Apple Inc. (AAPL) was upgraded to a buy rating by UBS on Friday morning on higher expectations for the company's popular iPhone, as well as speculation for a services platform the company may be developing.

In a note to clients, analyst Maynard Um said he believes Apple may be working on building a service "to provide seamless access and mobility of digital content across all its products." Such a service, he argues, may act as a "halo" that drives future product sales.

"We envision a service that seamlessly allows access to media-focused content of iTunes and user-generated content of MobileMe (pictures/videos/email/calendar) as well as social networking integration from any existing Apple product," he wrote in a note to clients.

Um raised his rating on Apple to buy and boosted his price target on the stock to $265 from $170. Apple shares were trading up 2.2% at $184.87 in recent late-morning activity.

"We are less concerned with regard to margin pressure as demand does not appear to be shifting to the $99 iPhone 3G and a lower end 3GS does not appear to be forthcoming, as we had originally feared," he wrote.


The Data Center part is here.

He also cited data pointing to an increase in capital spending on infrastructure and corporate facilities. He believes this is part of a plan to build out data center system, "which we hypothesize will be the foundation for a service that provides seamless access and mobility of digital content across all its products, at any time, and from any place."