Tech stock strategist Dan Ives says Apple’s (AAPL) latest iPhone cycle is off to a stronger start than expected, prompting him to raise his outlook on the stock.
In a new post on X, the Wedbush Securities managing director says sales of the iPhone 17 are flashing early signs of momentum, noting that demand could exceed projections.
“Raising price target on Apple to $310 based on the early strong demand signs coming out of the iPhone 17 cycle. With iPhone 17 officially going on sale, we are positively surprised on the demand trajectory…units appear to be tracking 10%-15% ahead of iPhone 16 thus far.”
In a recent CNBC interview, Ives noted that Wall Street is projecting sales growth of about 5% for iPhone 17 compared to its predecessor.
“But what’s baked in here is, [Wall] Street viewed this as this was going to be a 4% to 5% grower from an iPhone unit perspective… The other thing is, based on our estimates, 315 million iPhones have an upgrade in four-plus years of 1.5 billion iPhones.
So, you do have a lot of pent-up demand there. And I think that speaks to probably a stock that looks like it’s going to move higher over the coming weeks and months.”
The analyst also said that he thinks AAPL can surge higher than $310, but Apple must first get its AI strategy right.
“To have a $350, $400, AI will be that magic sort of wand that needs to happen.”
Apple has been struggling with its AI program following a string of setbacks.
Apple’s AI chief, John Giannandrea, was pushed aside from Siri development earlier this year after a major upgrade was delayed by engineering failures. Top engineers have since defected to rivals, including Meta, lured by multimillion-dollar offers.
At a staff meeting, one Siri executive reportedly called the delays “ugly and embarrassing.” The overhaul had been slated for release this spring but was postponed until 2026, leaving Apple behind competitors that already ship powerful voice-driven AI features.