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Apple stock jumped 7% Friday morning following the company’s better-than-feared second-quarter earnings report the day before.
Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations Thursday, reporting sales of $90.8 billion for the three months ended March 30. The company also announced its largest-ever stock buyback, authorizing $110 billion in share repurchases and raising its cash dividend by 4%.
Apple’s share price on Friday stood at $185. But Wall Street analysts expect the stock to rise as high as $250 per share over the next 12 months. Even a more bearish analyst, Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson — who is neutral on Apple, while other analysts have given it a “buy” rating — forecasts the share price rising to $200.
That’s because investment firms are looking forward to Apple’s widely expected AI announcement at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in early June.
“We believe that this year’s WWDC in June may be one of the most important events for Apple in recent memory, as we expect the company to announce its latest developments around how generative AI will be powering its future products and features,” Luria said in a note to investors Thursday.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has kept quiet on the company’s AI strategy. But he seems confident that Apple is poised to not only catch up to its competitors, but also to have major success when it comes to developing and implementing generative AI across its products.
“We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI,” Cook told investors on a call Thursday, “and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era including Apple’s unique combination of seamless hardware, software, and services integration; groundbreaking Apple silicon with our industry leading neural engine; and our unwavering focus on privacy.”