Apple stock notched a record high on Monday after a Wall Street analyst said the consumer electronics giant is likely to have strong holiday season sales.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives reiterated his outperform rating on Apple stock with a 12-month price target of 300.
On the stock market today, Apple stock jumped to a record high of 255.65 after the opening bell. It pulled back after hitting that milestone but recovered late in the day.
Apple stock ended the regular session up 0.3% to close at 255.27.
In a client note before the market open, Ives said he believes Apple will reach a $4 trillion market cap in early 2025. On Monday, its market cap was nearly $3.86 trillion.
Apple should benefit from an AI-driven upgrade cycle, which is just getting started with the iPhone 16, Ives said.
"We would characterize demand for iPhone 16 so far since its September launch as slightly ahead to generally in line with expectations globally," Ives said. "We believe Apple is set to have a strong holiday season ahead as iPhone 16 upgrades across its installed base are trending well into Christmas, based on our recent Asia supply chain checks."
Apple Stock On Tech Leaders List
Apple has an installed base of 1.5 billion iPhones with about 300 million iPhones in the window of an upgrade opportunity, he said.
Ives noted that Apple is slowly rolling out artificial intelligence features for its iPhones, starting with English-language markets.
"Importantly, Apple Intelligence has not rolled out in China or many other countries with April the likely timetable for these AI launches along with a Chinese tech partner also named very soon to catalyze the timing of this rollout in this key region," Ives said.
Last week, Reuters reported that Apple is in talks with Chinese tech firms Tencent and ByteDance about using their AI models in its iPhones in China.
"This will be a multiyear AI journey that will define the future for Apple with its next-generation chip architecture, hardware releases, and future iPhone models built around the AI foundation that many consumers will ultimately embrace," Ives said.
Apple stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
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