Apple’s (AAPL) market capitalization is once again closing in on $3 trillion. If and when it hits the mark, which will require shares to reach $182.86, Apple will be in historic territory. And analysts are loving it.
This month alone, Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley, Samik Chatterjee of JPMorgan, and Amit Daryanani of Evercore ISI have raised their price targets on the stock to $200. And on Tuesday BofA Global Research’s Wamsi Mohan upgraded the stock from neutral to buy and raised his price target for shares to $210.
Several factors are spurring analysts to fawn over Apple: Optimism for Apple’s iPhone, its coming products including its rumored AR/VR headset, and the company’s ability to suck in consumers and keep them there through its services business.
“We expect Apple to introduce an augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) headset, either by the end of 2022 or early 2023,” Mohan wrote in a recent analyst note. “We view this technology as a game-changer as it will enable many new applications which will require high performance hardware and higher access speeds.”
Apple’s AR/VR headset,according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, could cost upwards of $3,000 and be geared to gaming, entertainment, and communications. The headset has been rumored for some time, with Apple filing various patents related to the technology.
“I think what a number of people and investors are thinking about is, ‘Hey, if they move to the glasses, the AR and VR glasses that a lot of people expect to see in '22, that's another opportunity to really build on this incredible ecosystem of device owners, and iOS, and Mac OS holders that really love their devices,’ ” TECHnalysis Research president Bob O’Donnell told Yahoo Finance Live.
Apple’s Services business, which includes its App Store, is one of the major sticking points the company has going for it. After all, if you own an iPhone, you’re going to buy apps, and when it’s time to get a new phone you’ll likely buy another iPhone to keep those apps.
The same idea would apply to the company’s AR/VR headset if Apple can wrangle the kind of third-party developer support it already enjoys on the iPhone.
“We see the potential for more Services monetization relative to iPad as use cases develop beyond gaming and remote servicing and evolve into a whole new way in which the world digitally interacts, which AR/VR experts we've spoken with view as the long-term killer AR/VR application,” Huberty wrote in a Dec. 7 analyst note.
Of course, Apple’s iPhone is still the major driver of Apple’s revenue. And despite the supply chain problems that have upended nearly every industry around the world, Apple seems to be coming out of the crunch.
“Our checks indicate iPhone production is surprising to the upside as Apple hasn't experienced the same level of manufacturing disruptions as in the September quarter,” Huberty wrote. “While upward trending COVID cases are worth monitoring given they could create new production bottlenecks, we view supply upside as a driver of better December quarter iPhone results.”
Taken together, it’s clear analysts believe Apple’s new headset and related apps and services business, not to mention the iPhone, will serve as the catalysts that will not only push Apple over the $3 trillion mark, but send the company’s stock even higher.
“Apple's rise is testament to its strong business model,” Santosh Rao, Manhattan Venture Partners’ head of research, told Yahoo Finance Live. “It's an amazing story.”
“We have the cars coming up down the road, the 5G refresh, and so many other things, the services business, of course, is very strong,” he said. “So overall combined, this is a company that's well situated.”
Now Apple just has to prove the analysts’ optimism correct.