Apple stock overtakes Microsoft on increased AI expectations
William GallagherApple Intelligence is coming this fall
Apple's stock has risen sharply to take it ahead of Microsoft again, following investment analysts predictions of an iPhone upgrade super cycle because of Apple Intelligence.
Even in pre-market trading, Apple was up 56 cents to $234.96, and when the market opened, it was on $235.20 per share. That puts Apple's market cap at $3.6 trillion, where Microsoft opened down at $3.4 trillion, cementing Apple's lead, which it took when the market closed Monday.
Apple's rising share price follows the latest reports from analysts including Morgan Stanley. The firm has generally been bullish on Apple while other analysts have shied away from it, but in its most recent reports, it named the company as its top pick for investors.
After months of small trims, Morgan Stanley has now significantly raised its target price. It's gone from $216 to $273, again specifically because of Apple Intelligence.
Back in June 2024, JP Morgan also raised its target price for the same reasons. In that case it was only a $20 raise to $245, though.
In July 2024, Wedbush went so far as to say that there would be a "monumental" upgrade cycle for the iPhone 16 range, once more because of AI. It also said that it expected Apple's share price to rise by between $30 and $40.
Wedbush has not raised its Apple target price, even after concluding that Apple Intelligence makes the company a good investment. However, its target price was already $275.
Apple is due to announce its latest earnings on August 1, 2024. None of Apple's AI initiatives have launched, and will begin to roll out slowly to the public after iOS 18 is released in the fall.
Mike Wuerthele
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9 Comments
People will use any excuse to upgrade their iPhone. Now they have the ultimate excuse…Apple Intelligence. The Wedbush monumental upgrade cycle is on its way.
Every time there is a big innovation people try to put it in everything. Then after a few years they realize that most of those applications were stupid*. This will be the way with AI. Right now they want it in everything, while we the customers just want a Siri that can understand linked questions and a spelling checker that won’t recommend ‘banana’ when I type ‘mountai’. I am actually glad to hear that most of the Apple Intelligence features will be rolled out separately over the next year. That way I can hunt them down and kill them one at a time.
*This is how we ended up with asbestos modelling clay, and radium in makeup.
I think the long term value that warrants the higher price is the server side with private cloud compute on apple silicon.