Brian White Reiterates Apple As Top Pick Ahead Of WWDC, Previews Event

Apple Inc. AAPL Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place next week in San Francisco. Ahead of the event, Drexel Hamilton’s Brian J. White reiterated a Buy rating and $185 price target on shares of the tech behemoth, and shared the firm’s expectations for the event.

As per a report issued Friday, analysts at Drexel Hamilton said they expect the opening keynote — scheduled for Monday at 10:00 a.m. PT — to be focused on “software and services that expand the reach of Apple's digital matrix [it’s main differentiator from other mobile devices makers], while laying the foundation for exciting new innovations in the future.” In fact, the experts believe it is “virtually impossible for Android-based competitors to ever create a digital matrix that rivals ‘Planet Apple.’”

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Among the software updates the analysts foresee will be presented on Monday are iOS 10, OS X 10.12 (or macOS), watch OS 3 and tvOS 10. In addition, they believe the event could bring potential framework updates around HomeKit, HealthKit, CarPlay and other products.

Another focus, White continued, will likely be the reach of Siri, and how it can be leveraged going forward — especially given the success of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN’s Echo.

Finally, White and his team believe the WWDC could bring an improvement to the aesthetics and intuitiveness of Apple Music, which was presented in last year’s Conference.

Apple is Drexel Hamilton’s top pick for the second half of 2016.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.