Oppenheimer lowers AAPL target to $200 ahead of earnings

Oppenheimer has cut its price target for Apple from $220 to $200, just days ahead of the iPhone maker's fourth-quarter results release, citing China concerns and other factors.

In the days leading up to Apple's quarterly results being issued, analysts offer hot takes on what they expect the company will report. With Thursday's results release and analyst call fast approaching, Oppenheimer has taken the decision to cut down the 12-month price target for Apple from $220 to $200.

Speaking on CNBC to justify the decision, Oppenheimer senior analyst Martin Yang said China demand concerns and "macro-related factors" were behind the cut. The analyst hasn't seen consumer sentiment returning to the market in major markets, along with worsening exchange rate headwinds entering the quarter.

For the coming quarter, Yang adds that there's the belief that iPhone, Mac, and iPad shipments will be "weaker than what we expect." Demand in North America and Europe is described as being "pretty healthy," thanks to "robust" net additions from carriers.

On AI, Yang disagrees that Apple is behind in the market, as it is still the early stage of mass consumer adoption of the technology. Apple is "on paper" later going to market with a consumer-facing ChatGPT-style app, but Yang doesn't think Apple is "going to lose meaningful share without any meaningful competing devices on the market."

Yang is referring to Apple's progress in introducing on-device processing of queries and AI tasks.

On the "Scary Fast" event, the analyst believes the expected chip launches fit into the long-term narrative of Apple having an advantage of "very tight hardware-software integration." The event's late timing leans towards offerings benefiting consumers, especially gamers, as well as content creators and media consumers.