Shares of Apple ( AAPL ) surged as much as 6% on Tuesday to hit an intraday record as investors digested the announcement of its AI platform Apple Intelligence.
After the stock fell on Monday during and after the company’s WWDC keynote, shares rose as some Wall Street analysts cheered the company’s announcements.
“If you separate the signal from the noise, you understand that this is an unprecedented capability that Apple is going to introduce, and it’s going to integrate AI into everyday life,” DA Davidson managing director Gil Luria told Yahoo Finance (video above).
Following Monday’s event, Luria upgraded Apple to Buy from Neutral and raised his price target to $230 from $200.
On Monday, Apple announced “Apple Intelligence,” its long-awaited foray into the generative AI space. The company said the platform will be integrated across the company’s hardware and software products, from iPhone and Mac to Mail, Messages and Photos. Apple Intelligence will be available for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPads and Macs powered by Apple’s M1 series chips, with new ones coming this fall.
Key features of the release include updates to Siri, which can, for example, scan phones for addresses sent in messages or find photos in a phone’s photo library based on voice prompts. Apple also introduced new software updates for its iPhone, watches and computer products.
“Our experience in consumer surveys with prior-generation iPhone introductions suggests that the hardware upgrade cycle is driven more by a set of feature improvements across various applications that collectively provide reasons to upgrade over the next few years.” JP Morgan senior analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote in a note to clients on Monday.
“The rollout of AI features across Macs, iPads and iPhones will support the upgrade cycle across all devices,” he added.
The announcements capped a month of excitement for the stock, as rumors had already swirled about some of the news, including a partnership with ChatGPT operator OpenAI.
After being briefly overtaken by Nvidia ( NVDA ), the iPhone maker’s stock has now returned to the world’s second-most valuable company (behind Microsoft) with a market capitalization of more than $3.1 trillion.
Apple shares are now up more than 15% in the past two months, following a slow start to the year amid concerns about slowing iPhone demand. Analysts like Luria and Chatterjee believe the next iPhone upgrade cycle is on the horizon, with new AI features only coming to the iPhone 15 Pro and later generations.
“As people buy new phones this holiday season, they’re going to see this great functionality,” Luria said. “They’re going to show their friends and family and the product upgrade cycle will happen over the next few months and quarters.”
This, Luria argued, should be a major catalyst for the stock moving forward.
“The lack of revenue growth at Apple has left the stock flat,” Luria said. “Now, we think that will allow Apple’s overall growth to accelerate from low to mid-single digits, maybe even high single digits in the next year or two. That’s what could drive Apple’s stock.”
Josh Shafer is a Yahoo Finance reporter. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.
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