Bernstein Raises Apple Price Target to $380

Bernstein SocGen Group analyst Mark C.

Newman raised the price target on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) to $380 (from $370) while maintaining an Outperform rating.

“At John Ternus’ first quarterly earnings as CEO, he proudly announced that“Apple is the Best Company on Earth”, but is it the best stock on the planet?… Well it depends on what you want.

If you want to hide away from the AI trade, and still have exposure to tech (and a leading global tech franchise that could be better positioned in AI than most fear), then quite possibly yes… Apple continues to outperform peers in smartphones and PCs in this tough market with rising memory costs, and we also believe that Apple is the consumer gateway to AI.

However, if you are looking for more obvious AI winners in the near-term, then Apple is probably not for you.

After the strong beat and the mixed guidance (strong revenue, weak gross margins – detailed below), we update our EPS estimates and lower FY27 and FY28 by ~1% to $9.78 and $11.13 respectively.

Our FY29 EPS estimate is relatively unchanged at $12.43.

We are raising revenue by 2% from the strong guidance and our analysis of iPhone pricing and the staggered launch, which is more than offset by lower gross margins and higher R&D costs.

Share buy backs help offset some of the impact to Net income in the outer years. We are now 7-8% above consensus for FY28 and FY29.

We worry about rising memory cost pressures but see Apple’s position as unrivaled as share gains continue in smartphones and PCs and revenue continues to grow helped by strong pricing.

AI also presents a new opportunity for Apple which will take longer to play out.”

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