AAPL

Another investment analytics firm has joined the club and raised Apple's target price per share. Just a few days after BMO raised its target price to $110, Evercore Partners went a bit further, raising its price to $125 from $115.

In a research note to investors, provided to AppleInsider, Evercore analyst Rob Cihra maintained his "overweight" rating for Apple stock (NASDAQ: AAPL), meaning that he expects the stock to return above the average of the overall industry. He upped his fourth quarter iPhone sales estimate to 39 million, which would represent a 15% year-over-year increase. Fourth quarter results will be disclosed on Monday Oct. 20 at 5:00 PM ET.

After dipping to $97.87 on Thursday, likely due to "Bendgate," Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares rebounded to close at $100.75 on Friday. The high close for the week was $102.64 on Tuesday.

Early in the week reports of the iPhone 6 and especially 6 Plus began to surface and the story gained traction and became known as "Bendgate." Investors took note and on Thursday a higher than usual volume of shares was traded (almost 100 million compared to a more typical 60 million) and the share price closed below $100 for the first time in two weeks. Apple responded saying that with normal use an iPhone 6 would very rarely bend, and that only nine people had officially complained about the problem since the phone hit the shelves. The scare passed and share price closed at over $100 on Friday.

Canadian investment firm BMO Capital Markets is expecting a huge amount of iPhones to sell next year, along with a modest number of Apple Watches. In accordance with its expectations, earlier this week the firm increased its share price target to $110.

In a research note provided to AppleInsider, BMO analyst Keith Bachman remained with his "outperform" rating for AAPL shares. He projects 189 million iPhone (all models) sales in fiscal 2015, up about 10 million units from his previous projection.

Last week was clearly a very busy week for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), as the Cupertino giant released the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iOS 8. Tim Cook even opened the Palo Alto Apple Store himself to usher in the next generation iPhone. Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts was on site at the Sydney Apple Store for the event.

iPhone 6 sales were record breaking for the company, with over 10 million units sold in the first three days. Stock prices didn't react much during the week, hovering around $101 for most of the week and closing at $100.96 on Friday. Today is more of the same, with the price at $100.97 as of this writing, down from an opening of $101.80, which it reached in after hours trading.

After the official unveiling of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, Apple's share price (NASDAQ: AAPL) fell slightly, closing at $97.99 on Tuesday, after a day of heavy trading. This is no surprise, as the company's stock follows a trend of dropping off after iPhones are announced. As was also expected, share prices gained value for the rest of the week, closing at $101.66 on Friday.

Along with the iPhone 6 announcement, Apple announced the new Apple Pay service, which will work with the NFC chip, present in both the new iPhone and Apple Watch. The technology will allow customers to pay for goods at brick-and-mortar stores by simply waving their phones in front of an NFC chip reader. Apple