Apple Analyst: Russian Sales Ban Signals Industrywide Trend

Apple, Inc. AAPL recently announced it is stopping sales of all Apple products in Russia in protest against the country's unilateral war on Ukraine.

What Russia Ban Means For Apple, Other Big Techs: Apple has no stores in Russia and sells through third-party websites and partners/vendors, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a note.

Cupertino has also banned Russia state-controlled news outlets and apps from its App Store and removed traffic/live incidents from Apple Maps, the analyst said.

More tech stalwarts could follow in the footsteps of Apple and "pull the plug" on Russia in the coming weeks, Ives said.

Large tech stalwarts such as FAANGs and software/chip ecosystem have very limited to exposure to Russia relative to their global footprint, he said.

In a worst-case scenario, Russia will have a merely 1%-2% negative impact on the U.S. big tech companies, he added.

"This is a move the Street would gladly applaud given the heartbreaking Ukraine invasion by Russia that is playing out in front of the world's eyes." 

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Cybersecurity To Benefit? The cybersecurity sector will benefit from the cyber warfare that is currently underway, Ives said. An elevated level of cyberattacks adds growth tailwinds for the sector, he added.

Well-positioned vendors, the analyst said, should be a focus sector for tech investors during this market turmoil.

An increase in spending is bound to occur around preventing sophisticated Russian-based cyberattacks going after datacenters, networks, vulnerability points and other highly sensitive data, Ives said, citing his checks.

"In a very nervous investing backdrop for tech, we believe the cyber security sector is a clear pocket of strength that we would be overweighting at current levels." 

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