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Investing.com-- Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating on Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), and said that strong sales of the new iPhone 17 series set the company up for a topline beat in its upcoming fiscal fourth quarter earnings.
Wedbush maintained Apple at Outperform with a price target of $310.0.
The brokerage said focus was chiefly on Apple delivering above-consensus headline metrics when it reports its Q4 earnings on October 30. This was especially after data showed early sales of its iPhone 17 line were much higher than the 16 series last year, especially in major markets China and the United States.
Apple is projected to report Q4 earnings per share of $1.76 on revenue of $101.69 billion, Investing.com forecasts showed. This compares to EPS of $1.64 and revenue of $94.9 billion a year ago.
Wedbush said in a Monday note that Apple had “finally found success with iPhone 17,” and that the company was now primed to provide a substantial update on its artificial intelligence roadmap.
“We believe Apple beats this quarter on the all-important both iPhone numbers and Services front,” Wedbush analysts wrote in a note.
They noted that Google’s recent antitrust win– which allowed the company to maintain its search engine partnership with Apple– will likely open the door for AI-related partnerships.
“The AI monetization piece could add $75 to $100 per share to the Apple story over the coming few years… We believe no "AI premium" is factored into Apple’s stock at current prices which makes this a compelling large cap tech name to own into year-end and 2026,” Wedbush analysts said.
The Wedbush note comes shortly after research firm Counterpoint released a weekend report showing Apple’s iPhone 17 sales in China and the U.S. were up between 10% and 15% from last year’s 16 series.
Apple shares soared over 4% on the report and hit a record high on Monday. The company was also on the cusp of breaking above $4 trillion in market capitalization.