Analyst Polishes Apple Price Target On 'Teflon-Like' Services, iPhone 12 Outlook

As one of the first U.S. businesses disrupted by the coronavirus, Apple Inc. AAPL seemed to be a model of superior survival techniques. Now, Apple is approaching future catalysts from a position of strength, according to Wedbush.

The Apple Analyst

Daniel Ives maintained an Outperform rating on Apple and raised the price target from $335 to $350.

The Apple Thesis

For the most part, Apple has remained unshaken by COVID-19, according to Wedbush.

Its global demand and supply chain have weathered the storm. Yet the lengthening of global lockdowns and the impending economic fallout are expected to delay the company’s recovery, in the research firm's view. 

“To this point, we have continued to encourage investors to use this near-term uncertainty as an opportunity to buy the stock for the other side of the dark valley,” Ives said in a Tuesday note. (See his track record here.)

The analyst said he sees “Teflon-like” strength in the company’s services segment and values the unit between $500 billion and $600 billion.

“Looking ahead, with stores opening up to strong demand throughout Asia and a handful of U.S. stores opening up this week, coupled by a recovering supply chain which is on the path to normalization, it appears Apple is starting to lay the early groundwork for the next chapter of growth recovery in Cupertino.” 

The launch of the iPhone 12 should help, although Ives sees only a 15% chance of the 5G phones debuting as expected in October.

The analyst anticipates a delay to November or December in response to supply chain disruptions and soft economic conditions. At that point, Wedbush projects that at least 350 million iPhones worldwide will be turned in for the upgrade.

AAPL Price Action

At the time of publication Tuesday, Apple shares were trading 0.9% higher at $317.84. 

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Photo by Daniel Lu via Wikimedia.