Wall Street Titans Respond To Apple WWDC

After the highly anticipated Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), many analysts had mixed feelings about Apple Inc. AAPL.

The company announced the following developments:

• El Capitan (OS X 10.11)
• The new iOS9
• Siri gets more proactive
• Apple Pay to the UK
• Apple Maps now has public transit directions
• New Apple Watch software update (WatchOS 2)
• Expanded HomeKit
• CarPlay that will assist automakers to develop applications to control a vehicle’s features
• Apple Music

Here’s what some of Wall Street's best had to say about the releases.

Pros

Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty was very bullish after the conference, stating that Apple made many great announcements. In particular, she admired that Apple Pay is now available in 1 million locations (from 700,000 in March).

She also noted that the tech giant achieved a whopping 100 billion application downloads with $30 billion in payments, while concluding that 20 percent of Apple’s profits will come from services by year 2017.

Bank of America’s Wamsi Mohan, meanwhile, applauded Apple for its quick reaction to introduce a new software for the Apple Watch. He adds, “this is a positive development given a better user experience is key to driving increased watch adoption.”

Mohan also explained that the music streaming service (Apple Music), longer term, will have a broader adaptation and will be available across multiple platforms. Bank of America rates Apple a Buy with a price objective of $145.

Related Link: Apple Pay Exclusive Discounts Are 'Entirely Possible'

RBC Capital, next, has rated Apple at Market Outperform alongside a price target of $150. Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital added, “We believe AAPL’s current stock price creates an attractive entry point for investors to benefit from AAPL’s ability to sustain revenue and EPS growth through FY15.”

Ananda Baruah of Brean Capital rated Apple with a Buy rating and a price target of $170. The analyst specified how Apple Music “has managed to combine the features of SoundCloud, Ping, Spotify, and Pandora into a single app.”

He concluded that Apple Pay will be big, especially now that it is spreading into the United Kingdom.

Cons

Cleveland Research Company (CRC) analyst Ben Bollin did not see much progress in Apple, stating that he is “trimming estimates on moderation of iPhone unit expectation in September, component shortages, and softening watch expectations.”

The analyst rated Apple at Market Neutral and a price target of $127.80. He also added guidance for the company, stating a 3Q15 revenue of $46-$48 billion alongside an implied EPS of $1.70.

Daniel Ives of FBR Capital Markets commented that there was not any major surprises with Apple’s conference, although he rated the tech company at Market Outperform with a price target of $185 (no changes to his previous rating).

Well Fargo’s Maynard Um also stated that there were no surprises during the keynote presentation, saying Apple did not show any color for the Apple TV or any new hardware. He noted that the Swift programming language was the most important announcement, though it is not likely to yield much benefit for Apple. The analyst rated the stock at Market Perform at a price range between $125 and $135.

Sherri Scribner of Deutsche Bank rated Apple at Hold along with a price target of $125. She specified that “mgmt did not provide an update on supply or demand.

"Overall, we felt the event provided some positive new features and we view Apple Music as interesting, but we didn’t feel anything announced during the keynote was incremental enough to impact the stock," she added.

Though feelings are mixed about Apple on Wall Street, the stock is up nearly 16 percent year-to-date.