How does that compare with the price targets of the analysts who cover Apple for Wall Street?

Frankly, considering that the professionals’ targets range from a bizzarre $270 to a market-high $1,200, it’s hard to tell who are the real pros and who the amateurs.

Thomson/First Call‘s consensus, based of a poll of 43 brokers, is $713.12.  That’s 20% lower than the Braeburn Group’s in part because First Call takes seriously that unnamed analyst who is convinced that Apple’s share price is a bubble about to burst and collapse to $270.

We’ve been keeping our own spreadsheet, building on the work of AAPLInvestor‘s Terry Gregory, and we can name names.

The $270 price target comes from ACI’s Ed Zabisky, who’s been telling his clients since January to borrow Apple shares and sell them short — a strategy that would have cost anyone who followed it a fortune.

On the other extreme, Stuart O’Gorman of Henderson Global thinks Apple is headed to $1,2oo — $100 higher than the most bullish of the Braeburn independents.

The consensus among the 47 professionals analysts in our poll is $724. When their estimates are added to the Braeburn Group’s, the average 12-month price target of all 62 Apple specialists comes to $753.

The stock closed Friday at $574.13

Below the fold: The two group’s price targets. We’ll find out next June whose were closest to the mark.

The Braeburn Group

The Professionals