Evercore ISI reaffirmed its bullish stance on Apple (AAPL), reaffirming its buy recommendation and $250 price target on the tech giant, citing “another strong month” for Apple as the basis for its outlook.
But Wall Street analysts will be watching to see whether Apple's artificial intelligence efforts, announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, will be enough to drive growth in the coming quarters.
To learn more about expert insights and the latest market trends, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.
This post Angel Smith
Video Transcript
We're always looking at Apple Evercore, so we're looking at Apple this morning.
I reiterated my buy recommendation on the stock and my $250 price target, and said it was another strong month for the company's iPhone.
The stock is currently up about 1.5%.
Well, it's been another good month for Apple, although I think the bigger question is how many people are waiting to get their hands on the new iPhone because of the promises they made at WW DC of whether generative AI is enough of a demand generation driver for Apple.
With the following inflection:
The data is pretty compelling, with Evercore predicting 40% year-over-year growth in May, up from April's 52% growth.
that's good.
The acceleration suggests it is easing concerns about Apple's position in China.
So China has been a weak spot for Apple, at least over the past few quarters.
You know, I was reading this memo and I was thinking about another memo that Mike Cantor wrote on Wednesday, where he doesn't seem to want to talk about the SNP anymore.
And because SNPs are all AI.
right.
I read this note and thought, okay, let's do an AI iPhone upgrade supercycle, but then I went back a few months and Apple wasn't doing AI and the stock price was sluggish, and I started to worry that interest in the AI theme might start to wane a little bit later this year.
Wouldn't it be great if Apple went back to talking about regular iPhone sales in China, its biggest growth market?
And they don't have to worry about AI, they make loads of profits, pay dividends, and buy back loads of stock.
As an investor, this is a safe place to say, “We're overinvested.”
apple.
That wouldn't have been much fun to say a few months ago, because there was no so-called AI to act out that story.
Obviously, the stock chart has been in a big reversal since late April, but as a more conservative entrant in this space, going back to basics – selling lots of people, lots of iPhones and lots of services tied to the IO system – may be Apple's best bet, in the words of Warren Buffett.
So Time Hauler and the Apple guy are on to something.
Well, someone else executed that deal and he probably had to sign it.
But at the end of the day, if you look back at Apple’s history, there’s never been a time in the past 20 years where you could say that Apple has been a pioneer in innovation and understanding what the market demand program files are.
They will figure out a fair pricing structure that will be acceptable to consumers who have already bought into the ecosystem.
And you could say that over time they might be able to raise the price a little bit, but they never said they were going to be number one in MP3 players, especially under Tim Cook, at least not while he was CEO.
Well, you know, we probably wouldn't be the first company to develop a fully touchscreen phone, even for work.
at the time.
There were other examples of companies innovating ahead of others.
Generative AI is another example where they're very calculating, and I think the reason we haven't heard anything from them in the generative AI space for months, almost a year, is because they're being as conservative as you point out, but also calculating.
Yeah, I mean, going back to today's jobs report.
If the economy is in a different phase, if the market is in a different phase, then isn't it better to talk about a better core business?
Rather than saying that our story will play out in the next generation of technology because interest rates are high, it's better for Apple to just say that we all have Macs and iPhones on the table because the landscape for our core customer base is changing regardless of what business you're in.
Julie Sue says John Mark says this job is hot.
So she's good.
Well, you know, you know, you know.
Okay.
