Wedbush Raises Apple's Price Target On Better Demand Trends

Although Apple Inc AAPL shares have appreciated more than 65% year to date, upside to the Street’s iPhone expectations heading into 2020 could boost the stock even higher, according to Wedbush.

The Analyst

Wedbush’s Daniel Ives maintained an Outperform rating on Apple while raising the price target from $300 to $325.

The Thesis

While services could be the next leg of growth for Apple, iPhones continue to have bright prospects in 2020 and beyond, given the launch of iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro in 2019 and the scheduled launch of 5G smartphones in 2020, Ives said in the note.

Demand for iPhone 11 is trending much better than was expected and Apple seems poised to record sales of 190 million iPhone units in fiscal 2020, the analyst mentioned. He added that there could be upside to this figure, if iPhone 11 Pro also continues to track ahead of expectations in the U.S.

Recent Asia checks have been positive, Ives said. In China, around 60 to 70 million iPhones are in the "window of an upgrade opportunity" and, given lower pricing, better camera technology and challenges being faced by Huawei at the high-end of the market, iPhone 11 sales could be strong here.

Price Action

Shares of Apple had risen slightly to $264.49 at the time of publishing on Friday.

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