Wedbush raises its price target on Apple to $205 from $190.
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Apple
stock is pushing up toward its former highs. Investors should be feeling confident about its capacity to go further as a result of sustained demand for iPhones and future services revenue, according to analysts at Wedbush.
Apple
(ticker: AAPL) is benefiting from strong demand in Asia for the iPhone 14, with no major production cuts, wrote Wedbush’s Dan Ives in a research note. He raised his target for the share price to $205 from $190, continuing to rate it at Outperform.
“While Apple clearly has benefited this quarter from December unit shortages that slipped into January/February, we have seen China iPhone demand in particular see a clear tick up this quarter with a strong month of March,” Ives wrote.
Apple stock was up 0.3% in early trading on Monday at $165.45.
Apple stock has risen 27% this year from lows of around $125 at the beginning of 2023, helping push the Nasdaq-100 into a new bull market. A boost from here could see Apple shares retest record highs of above $180, when adjusted for stock splits.
Other analysts are also reporting resilient iPhone demand. UBS analysts wrote in a research note that retailers’ sales of iPhones in February were down 3% from the prior year, compared with a fall of more than 14% for the global smartphone industry overall.
“iPhone sell-through [is] tracking in-line with our expectations as growth was positive in both the US and China during February,” the UBS analysts wrote.
They kept a Buy rating on Apple stock with a $180 target price.
Wedbush’s Ives argued that in addition to Apple’s continued strength, investors should be counting on an acceleration in services revenue in the coming quarters, based on price increases and the 100 million new iPhone users added over the past 15 months.
“We believe overall the services business is worth $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion for Apple’s sum- of-the parts valuation and remains an underappreciated asset by the Street,” Ives wrote.
Write to Adam Clark at [email protected]
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