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Apple stock remained below its intraday record high early Monday.
Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images
Apple
stock was in position to close at a record high early Monday as investors awaited the expected launch of a mixed-reality headset and any potential announcements about artificial intelligence.
The shares (ticker: AAPL) rose 1% to $182.72 in premarket trading, putting them on pace to surpass the tech giant’s record closing high of $182.01, reached at the beginning of January 2022. The stock was still trading just below its intraday record high of $182.94, according to FactSet data.
Anticipation ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, scheduled to begin Monday and run through Friday, is likely driving those gains. The company is expected to launch a virtual-reality and augmented-reality headset, marking Apple’s entry into the metaverse.
Investors will also be keen to hear anything the company has to say about AI, or its strategy around the technology, which has taken the market by storm in 2023.
Evercore ISI analysts see the stock climbing even higher, raising their target for the price to $210 from $190 after conducting a deep-dive research effort on the company. “Apple remains positioned to sustain mid-single digit sales and double-digit EPS (earnings per share) growth over [the] next several years with less volatility and high consistency,” they said, reiterating an Outperform rating.
They said they expect Apple’s VR/AR offering will contribute $10 billion in sales and 20 cents to earnings per share, or around 4%, annually in five years. “This is an opportunity that has been speculated about for a while and would be a great way for Apple to build on the incredible success of its Wearables business,” they wrote.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-stock-price-record-high-wwdc-adcc76c2?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo