Enough With the Apple Price Targets, Already!

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Snappy price target numbers grab attention like little else, but -- with few exceptions (Reformed Broker was the standout) -- pass without a word of long-term caution from the media.

A recent Associated Press headline, for example, screamed: "Analyst sets $1,001 price target on Apple (AAPL) shares."

Last July, that same analyst came out with a price target of $666. From Arabian Nights to a devilish turn, the numbers themselves serve as a visual lure, as do the numbers clawing at each other to be the highest on Wall Street. Do I hear Space Odyssey 2001?

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Reformed Broker, also known as Joshua Brown, leads his article with a price target of $2275. "I got there by looking at a telephone keypad," he wrote, "and taking the digits from the A, A, P and L of the ticker symbol. Clever, huh?"

Reformed Broker is long the stock, but weary that from the Internet bubble days on, "too many goldilocks stocks get kneecapped just when the buy-recs-for-attention thing begins to roll."

He is right. More should take notice.