03. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Upside Potential: 17%
Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers, on July 24, made some positive adjustments to the price targets for shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) while keeping their existing ratings unchanged. The new price target for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock has been raised from $210 to $225, reflecting the analyst’s optimistic outlook on the company’s performance. These revisions were made in anticipation of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) third-quarter earnings announcement scheduled for August 3. In his analysis, Rakers emphasized the favorable prospects for the PC industry, asserting that the inventory correction phase has been successfully completed. This positive development allows him to shift the focus towards a stabilizing demand environment as we progress into the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024. As a result, he maintains an optimistic stance on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) future performance. Wells Fargo’s Overweight rating, which remained unchanged, indicates the analyst’s confidence in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) ability to outperform its competitors and the broader market. This suggests that Rakers expects Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock price to experience growth and deliver favorable returns to investors.
Wedgewood Partners Large Cap Focused Growth Fund made the following comment about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its second quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) contributed to positive performance during the quarter despite declining revenues and operating earnings mostly driven by difficult comparisons in its Mac segment. iPhone sales grew as supply chain bottlenecks seem to be in the rearview mirror, with component prices falling. The Company also highlighted the torrid growth of its App Store ecosystem, which saw over $1.1 trillion in billings on the platform during 2022, more than double the billings in 2019. Apple has tremendous leverage across the mobile economy due to the App Store’s mission-critical relevance to both developers and users. We continue to hold Apple as a top weighting in the portfolio because this asset-light ecosystem drives sustainably high returns on invested capital.
In January 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco. At the time of that momentous day, Jobs had not planned for third-party developers to build native software applications (apps) for the iPhone’s internal operating software (iOS). However, later that year, bowing to considerable pressure from the developer community, Jobs relented. When the second-generation iPhone (3G) was released in the summer of 2008, Apple announced the opening of the iPhone App Store at the same time. According to the Company in July 2009, after just the first 12 months since the launch of the App Store, 1.5 billion apps were downloaded from 65,000 apps from more than 100,000 developers from 77 countries.
That early symbiotic relationship between the iPhone (hardware) and the App Store (software) completely redefined the utility of the iPhone (think Intel and Microsoft). Too bad American Express coined the phrase, “Don’t Leave Home Without It.” That perfectly describes the utility of the modern iPhone. Heck, for years now, most of us won’t walk from the kitchen to the garage without it…” (Click here to read the full text)
