Apple stock is pushing up toward its former highs. Investors should be feeling confident about its capacity to go further on sustained iPhone demand 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 price on the stock to $205 from $190 and kept an Outperform rating.
“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 down 0.6% in premarket trading on Monday at $163.97.
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 all-time highs of above $180, when adjusted for stock splits.
Ives argued that in addition to Apple’s continued hardware strength, investors should be counting on an acceleration in services revenue in the coming quarters, based on the 100 million new iPhone users added over the past 15 months and price increases.
“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.
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