In the fourth quarter of last year, Apple overwhelmed Samsung Electronics by sweeping 92% of global smartphone industry profits.
Analyst Michael Walkley, a financial services firm, said in a note sent to customers today that Apple's stock price target has been raised from $ 142 to $ 154, according to a report by Wall Street.
Apple shares climbed 1.2 percent to close at $ 131.53 to close at $ 134.54 in May 2015.
It's been a long time since Apple took most of the smartphone industry profits. Apple's share of profits exceeds 100% because there are companies that make losses.
Of the six major companies surveyed, four were in the fourth quarter, including Apple, Samsung Electronics, BlackBerry and Sony.
Samsung Electronics accounted for 9% of industry profits. Sony was 1% and Blackberry was less than 1%.
Other companies, including Microsoft and LG Electronics, saw losses in smartphones last quarter.
Apple benefited from the strong sales of the iPhone 7 plus model and Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 recall, Walclee said.
Apple's profit share was lower than the 106% of the third quarter last year, but it was 1% higher than in the same period last year.
Apple sold 78.3 million units last quarter, a little more than Samsung Electronics' 77.5 million units. It is the first time Apple has outperformed Samsung in global smartphone sales since 4Q201.
Apple dominates the high-end phone market. The average selling price of the Apple iPhone is about $ 695, nearly four times the price of a Samsung mobile phone ($ 185). Among Samsung's mobile phone sales volume in the fourth quarter of last year, 77.7 million are smartphones and 12.5 million are feature phones.
The popularity of the jet black color with a large screen plus a high capacity (128GB and 256GB) helped Apple maintain a high selling price.