Apple's 'Scary Fast' Event Underwhelms Analysts, Leads To Question Of Timing Ahead Of Q4 Earnings

Technology giant Apple Inc AAPL highlighted several new products and company announcements at its Monday "Scary Fast" event.

The event, which comes after the iPhone 15 unveiling, showed off new MacBooks, the iMac upgrade and M3 chips.

Here's a look at what analysts are saying in reaction to the "Scary Fast" event.

• Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng has a Buy rating and price target of $213.
• Oppenheimer’s Martin Yang has an Outperform rating and price target of $200 on Apple
• Needham analyst Laura Martin has a Buy rating and price target of $195

Goldman Sachs on Apple: New Apple products unveiled provide more attractive price points for consumers, Ng said.

"The announcements made were largely in-line with press speculation going into the event and as a result, largely in-line with expectations," Ng said.

Despite the limited expectations, Apple's event could be a catalyst moving forward, Ng added.

"AAPL's refreshed Mac portfolio positions it well to capitalize on the industry PC recovery following declining shipments in the last 2 years due to a normalization of the outsized demand.

Ng said he's encouraged by the "potential channel fill" for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024.

The analyst also points out several risks facing Apple going forward. Risks include weakening consumer demand, supply chain disruption, intensifying competition, regulatory risks and capital allocation execution.

Oppenheimer on Apple: The "Scary Fast" event from Apple was underwhelming for Yang.

"The performance improvement over the M2 family are less significant in this generation," Yang said.

This current cycle is short compared to other "generational updates" that are usually 15 months to 19 months, the analyst said.

"Overall, we're underwhelmed by the incremental upgrades, puzzled by a much shortened MacBook Pro release cycle, and disappointed by the lack of new information regarding Apple Silicon for AAA gaming."

With Apple spending a large amount of time talking about "next-generation GPU architecture," Yang was disappointed to not hear more about how the company will target the "mainstream gaming audiences."

Related Link: Apple Has ‘Flex The Muscles Moment’ With iPhone 15, Expects ‘Mini Supercycle’ To Propel Shares Forward

Needham on Apple: The timing of the "Scary Fast" event is key for Martin.

"The odd timing, just 3 days before earnings, causes us to worry that laptop and iMac sales were weak in the Sept. Q," Martin said.

Many of the Apple products unveiled Monday can be ordered this week and deliveries start next week, Martin said.

"The imminent availability helps explain the odd timing of having a launch event just 3 days before AAPL releases earnings this Thursday."

Martin said the launch could be a way to "mitigate any negative share price reaction."

Apple will be able to focus on the future and discuss the optimism of its new products during its earnings report and conference call, Martin added.

AAPL Price Action: Apple shares trade at $169.73 Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $124.17 to $198.23.

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