Jefferies has initiated coverage of Apple Stock with a prediction of massive gains over the next year, based on not just iPhone sales, but also the Services revenue that grows as Apple's customer base increases.
An analyst is predicting that Apple's Search Ad business will generate $500 million in fiscal year 2018 alone — with it potentially quadrupling without any extra push by Apple or increase in ad prices by 2020.
Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley has taken a look at Apple's App Store numbers in China, and while there does appear to be a combination of factors provoking a short-term stall in growth for Apple's iOS App Store, earnings will still be massive, and long-term Services revenue won't be impacted much, if at all.
Investment bank JP Morgan on Thursday initiated coverage on shares of Apple with an "Overweight" rating and $272 price target, saying it sees "considerable upside" for the company based on its leadership position in the smartphone market and the services it uses to amplify those revenues.
The increased costs of making larger displays is small compared to the extra revenues they will bring by driving greater use of the iPhone and tailoring to Apple's forthcoming video services, according to a new analysis.
Apple's remarkable success in iTunes and its App Stores bears striking similarity to another example of a platform developer investing in its own ecosystem: transit Value Capture. App Store Value Capture has changed the game for Apple, and is now fueling a faster rate of revenue growth for the company than all of its hardware segments combined.
Despite making the hardware business look easy, Apple hasn't always been incredibly successful in introducing new devices. But comparing its biggest hits with its worst misses helps to isolate a secret sauce that is driving demand for the company's products globally.
Analyst Gene Munster sees Apple Pay as an increasingly important part of Apple's services category, which has enjoyed record-breaking growth over the past few quarters, estimating the payment solution now has 253 million users worldwide.
During Apple's quarterly conference call for the third quarter of 2018, CEO Tim Cook made two announcements regarding Apple Pay's planned expansion for the year.
Apple's services financial category jumped 31 percent year-over-year in the third fiscal quarter of 2018, its best performance ever.
Based on the continued strength of iPhone sales, Guggenheim Partners has raised its Apple revenue estimates, with services revenues continuing to surge.
Apple is reportedly mulling a subscription bundle that incorporates the company's existing services, namely Apple Music and products sold through the News platform, with a slate of original TV shows widely rumored to be in production.
Apple's Services business is vastly undervalued by the market, and not considered part of the larger whole by investors according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.
While services will continue to grow into a massive entity on its own, longtime analyst Gene Munster says that the iPhone will remain a "stable business for the next few years."
The continued impact of the iPhone X has expectedly reverberated into Apple's second financial quarter of 2017 an interesting one — but not quite how analysts thought they would. The changes over time are best illustrated graphically, showing the magnitude of the quarter, as compared to the same quarter from of years past.
Apple posted $9.19 billion in services revenue over the course of its second fiscal quarter of 2018, a figure up 31 percent year-over-year. The massive uptick doubles services revenue recorded just four years ago.
Apple now has a customer base of more than 250 million paid subscriptions across its Services offerings of Apple Music, iCloud and App Store continuing payments. Viewed against Amazon's recent announcement of 100 million Prime members, that figure is substantial. But Apple is also adding around 30 million new subscriptions every quarter.
An analyst predicts that Apple Music's dramatic growth over the next three years will be another major factor driving services revenue upward, but may push down overall margins.
As part of folding the Texture "Netflix for magazines" service into its own products, Apple appears poised to fire up a premium subscription offering integrating curated news to continue to grow services revenue.
Apple may not be reliant on massive seasonal sales of the iPhone going forward for steady revenue growth, if a new analyst report is accurate.
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Mike Wuerthele
Stephen Silver
William Gallagher
Daniel Eran Dilger
Andrew O'Hara
Mikey Campbell
Malcolm Owen
