Apple’s augmented-reality headset announcement hasn’t exactly met ‘new iPhone’ levels of excitement among Wall Street analysts or investors.
Apple (ticker: AAPL) shares were down 0.4% in premarket trading Tuesday at $178.83. The stock closed down 0.8% on Monday as the headset announcement led to questions over its $3,499 price tag and how customers are likely to use it.
“The hype leading into the event felt well overdone, setting up for a prime sell-the-news event in trading,” wrote analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets led by Brandon Nispel, in a research note.
Nispel said Apple’s revenue benefit from the Vision Pro headset is likely to be “immaterial” in the short term and the technology is unlikely to do anything to disrupt the iPhone, but that it could eventually become a replacement for TVs and monitors.
While KeyBanc didn’t make any change to its view on Apple –which it last rated as Overweight with an $180 target price– other analysts saw the company’s conference event as a moment to curb expectations for the stock, which hit an all-time intraday high ahead of the event.
D.A. Davidson’s Tom Forte lowered his rating on Apple to Neutral from Buy, and his target price to price target to $185 from $193. Forte argued the headset only offers a modest increase in near-term sales and profit outlook due to its high price and relative lack of content to attract consumers.
“We are downgrading [Apple] shares on our belief that any good news from the AR/VR product launch is already reflected in the share price” Forte wrote.
Forte said that while Apple argues the Vision Pro combines the qualities of top-of-the-line TVs and computer monitors with a surround-sound system and high-end camera, it’s hard to see customers paying up for the headset as an effective replacement of those products.
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