Wall Street analysts say Apple iPhone 16 sales trends appear solid a month after the retail launch. Apple stock rose Monday on the news.
In a client note, Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah said his firm's supply-chain checks suggest that Apple's September-quarter iPhone shipments "are tracking stronger than anticipated."
Apple will report its results for the September quarter — its fiscal Q4 — on Oct. 31.
Baruah reiterated his buy rating on Apple stock with a price target of 300.
On the stock market today, Apple stock rose 0.6% to close at 236.48.
Apple Stock Is Near Buy Zone
With the move higher, Apple stock neared the buy zone of its Oct. 15 attempted breakout. On that date, Apple hit a buy point of 237.23 from a 13-week consolidation period, according to IBD MarketSurge charts. It reached an all-time high of 237.49 intraday but ended the session below the buy point.
Loop Capital's Baruah is bullish on Apple stock because of the company's position in the generative artificial intelligence trend.
"Our thesis is that Apple has an opportunity the next few years to solidify itself as consumer's Gen AI 'basecamp' of choice, just as it did for social media 15 years ago (with iPhone) and digital content consumption 20 years ago (with iPod)," Baruah said. "Each of those trends were material stock catalysts and the basic math suggests that Gen AI has the opportunity to be the same."
Apple Intelligence To Debut Oct. 28
Elsewhere on Wall Street, JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee kept his overweight rating on Apple stock with a price target of 265.
In a client note, Chatterjee said iPhone 16 delivery lead times are tracking in line with last year's iPhone 15. That provides "more reassurance around recovery in demand momentum," he said.
Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett maintained his buy rating on Apple stock with a price target of 261.
"We expect that iPhone demand can strengthen as Apple Intelligence features begin to roll out with the iOS 18.1 update Oct. 28," he said in a client note.
Apple Intelligence is the company's take on artificial intelligence. The first batch of AI features are said to include notification summaries, writing tools and "cleanup" photo-editing tools.
Apple stock is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
