Apple is Citi’s Top AI Stock pick for 2025

Citi analyst Atif Malik says Apple Apple is the firm’s Top AI Stock pick for 2025 because of its coming rollout of artificial intelligence updates for the iPhone in the form of Apple Intelligence. AAPL beat out chip giant Nvidia (NVDA), which reported July quarter earnings and revenue above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday.
Angela Palumbo for Barron’s:
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Apple is hosting its “Glowtime,” product launch event on Sept. 9, and Wall Street is on pins and needles waiting to hear what updates the company has to share. This event stands out against others in recent history, as Apple is expected to provide more in-depth information regarding new AI-equipped iPhones.
“We believe the company will put a lot of focus on how the hardware updates for the iPhone 16 family can better support its Apple Intelligence features that is expected to roll out officially later in the fall,” Malik wrote in a research note Thursday. He rates Apple as a Buy with a $255 price target.
Demand for these phones is widely expected to boost Apple’s revenue—how much the company’s sales will improve after the AI launch has been a major focus on Wall Street. Customers will want the fresh AI updates, but only users with iPhone 15 Pro models and above will be able to access them. Because of this exclusivity, many analysts that cover the stock expect what is being dubbed a “super upgrade cycle.”

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MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like Wedbush Securities’ Daniel Ives who also maintains a positive outlook on Apple, rating the company’s stock as “Outperform” with a price target of $285. Ives believes that the integration of AI technology into Apple’s ecosystem will create monetization opportunities across both services and hardware, contributing an additional $30 to $40 per share to the company’s valuation. This potential boost could propel Apple’s market capitalization to $4 trillion. “AI technology being introduced into the Apple ecosystem will bring monetization opportunities on both the services as well as iPhone/hardware front,” Ives wrote in a note to clients this week.
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