Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives: ‘China remains ‘Rock of Gibraltar strong’ for Apple’

In a Monday note to clients, Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives remains unshaken over a Bloomberg News’ report of expanded CCP bans of foreign smartphone brands, including iPhone, in Chinese government agencies.

Ive writes:
‎

We believe Apple will be the first $4 trillion market cap by the end of 2024 given the pace of growth and monetization we estimate for Cupertino over the next year. While there are lingering worries around iPhone shadow government bans in China for now this issue is very containable and has not dented demand for Cupertino in this key region based on our recent checks.
We believe Apple is heading into a strong holiday season over the coming weeks that should translate into iPhone 15 growth that exceeds [Wall] Street estimates for the December quarter on the heels of strong upgrade activity within the U.S. and China markets that is resilient despite the bear noise,” he wrote. “We have not seen any negative revisions around iPhone units coming out of our recent Asian supply chain checks into holiday season/early 2024, which speaks to what we believe is a very consistent consumer demand environment around iPhone 15 so far and is good news for [Apple CEO Tim] Cook & Co.
Our iPhone 15 unit checks globally give us confidence in the 220 million to 230 million units bogey for FY24 that could show upside if this pace of upgrade activity continues into the March/June quarters. In our view the Street continues to underestimate the underlying upgrade opportunity in China during the December quarter and FY24…
On a sum-of-the-parts valuation we believe the Services business is worth $1.5 trillion to $1.6 trillion on a standalone basis and this re-rating is a key dynamic for the stock over the next few quarters. With a growing iPhone business again into 2024 on the heels of what we view as a new tech bull market beginning, Apple is poised to have a strong year ahead.

MacDailyNews Take: “Rock of Gibraltar strong” balanced on the head of a pin.
‎
MacDailyNews Note: Ives maintains his “Outperform” rating and reiterates his $250 price target on Apple shares.
‎
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.

The post Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives: ‘China remains ‘Rock of Gibraltar strong’ for Apple’ appeared first on MacDailyNews.