Wall Street is still underestimating Apple's prospects for 2026, with Wedbush's Q1 forecast expecting discussion about iPhone 17 demand and the AI landscape to dominate Thursday's analyst call.

On Thursday, Apple will be releasing its first-quarter results and holding its usual conference call with analysts. One day before those expectedly huge results arrive, Wedbush has provided its own analysis on the financial side of Apple.

For the results itself, the note to investors seen by AppleInsider put Apple as bringing in revenue of $136.68 billion for the quarter, up from $124 billion last year.

This is down from the top estimate of Wedbush's Wall Street consensus of $138.4 billion. But even so, that figure is still beatable in the view of the analysts.

This is driven by a strong showing for the iPhone 17 launch, as well as a major rebound in China despite increased competition. Apple should beat its iPhone sales for the quarter, Wedbush predicts.

It is estimated that about 315 million of the 1.5 billion iPhones in use have not been upgraded in the last four years, giving Apple a healthy potential upgrader base.

Wedbush is also expecting good things from Services, with Apple anticipated to outperform the Wall Street Consensus. An acceleration of cloud and payment services will help drive the mid-teens year-over-year growth of the segment.

AI revitalization

A big topic of the note is artificial intelligence, with Apple set to keep the ball rolling on its generative AI efforts. Indeed, Wedbush expects CEO Tim Cook to expand on Apple's AI strategy during the call.

The revamp of Siri and the deal with Google will be commenary to focus on, given the extended timeline for Siri's contextual update. The delay was a necessary move, the note explains, especially since Apple wants to deliver on its own hardware ecosystem.

After signing the agreement with Google, Apple now needs to finalize its blueprint to speed up its AI strategy in 2026. That includes an anticipated Siri refresh in the spring and WWDC announcements in June.

It's such an important topic that Wedbush doubts that there's an "AI premium" built into Apple's current stock prices. This premium could be worth as much as $75 to $100 per share if fully realised.

Apple may have a lot of moving parts to contend with in 2026, in Wedbush's view, but Apple's AI roadmap will be an important thing to determine, and for Apple to succeed with in the year.

Wedbush maintains its current price target for Apple at $350 with an "Outperform" rating.