Oklo stock tumbles as Financial Times scrutinizes valuation
Investing.com -- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares gained a boost from Evercore ISI, which added the stock to its Tactical Outperform List, citing stronger-than-expected iPhone demand and improving Services growth.
Evercore ISI said it believes Apple “is well positioned to report upside to current Sep-qtr consensus expectations and could guide to upside for the Dec-qtr.”
The firm said its “positive bias is driven by iPhone data points that suggest this may be more than the average iPhone refresh cycle,” noting that “lead times for the base iPhone 17 are above last year’s October levels.”
Survey data also supported optimism, with “a higher-than-average number of respondents indicating that they plan to purchase a new iPhone this year.”
Evercore ISI said consensus revenue forecasts imply sequential growth of 8.1%, “in line with the 5-year average Sep-qtr growth of 7.9%,” but added that Apple “could report upside to this given the late-quarter iPhone momentum and double-digit App Store revenue growth (which we estimate to have been ~12% during the quarter).”
The analysts said Apple could “point to continued double-digit Services growth now that we’ve seen a number of headwinds facing the segment get resolved (DOJ/GOOG, AAPL vs. EPIC, etc.) during the quarter.”
Looking ahead, Evercore ISI said Apple could guide ahead of street expectations, which currently suggest quarter-on-quarter growth of 28.3% versus typical seasonality of 43%.
The firm noted that “iPhone Air performance appears to be softer than initial expectations,” but said that the recent launch of online orders in China may be a positive tailwind for the December quarter.
Evercore ISI maintained its Outperform rating and $290 price target.