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Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes about 250 million iPhones have not been upgraded in more than four years.
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Apple
‘s iPhone 15 launch will be a major driver of growth for the tech company, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who raised his price target on the stock Wednesday.
The analyst, long a bull on
Apple
stock (ticker: AAPL), raised his 12-month target to $220 from $205 and maintained his Outperform rating.
Shares of Apple were up 1.1% Wednesday to $181.18.The stock has jumped 39% this year.
He wrote in a research note that Apple is in a “massive position of strength” thanks to the coming launch of the iPhone 15. The new model will help bring revenue growth because millions of users are in position to replace their phones with newer versions, Ives said.
“Based on our current analysis we estimate roughly 250 million iPhones have
not been upgraded in over four years and sets Apple up for a major installed base
upgrade cycle heading into this anniversary 15 year release,” Ives said.
Apple has announced several new products throughout the last few days at its Worldwide Developers Conference, including the highly anticipated Vision Pro headset and a new MacBook Air. But smartphone sales have consistently been the biggest revenue driver for the company, with iPhones bringing in $51 billion of Apple’s total $95 billion in revenue last quarter.
Ives believes the launch of a new iPhone that will be more expensive then the current models, plus the sheer amount of people that haven’t upgrades their phones recently, put the company in a strong position.
Corrections & Amplifications: Apple stock was down 0.3% in premarket trading Wednesday. A previous version of this article incorrectly said shares were down 0.3% in premarket trading Friday.
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
Source: https://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-iphone-15-upgrades-stock-a187c9e6?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo