BofA Securities reiterates buy rating on Apple stock, sees several potential benefits to mooted Perplexity acquisition

Apple is reportedly in discussions to acquire AI startup Perplexity. Bank of America Securities (BofA) suggests this move could boost Apple’s stock, which has declined precipitously this year.
Christine Ji
 for Business Insider:
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Apple has been the worst-performing Magnificent Seven stock in 2025, with shares down 20% year-to-date. On top of weak iPhone sales and tariff concerns, the company has lagged in the AI race among its mega-cap tech peers.
At Apple’s WWDC earlier this month, the company failed to ease Wall Street’s concerns about its Apple Intelligence product…
However, Apple executives could be eyeing a purchase of AI startup Perplexity, Bloomberg reported last week. While Perplexity has denied any M&A discussions and Apple has declined to comment, Wall Street didn’t ignore the buzz. Bank of America believes a deal could throw a lifeline to Apple’s thus-lacking AI strategy and turn the stock around.
If you can’t make your own special AI sauce, buying it might be the next best option, according to BofA…
“Any such deal (we do not have any direct knowledge of the probability of such a deal) would likely be positive for shares that are currently in the penalty box given Apple is largely viewed as an AI laggard (deep Siri integration delayed and no cutting edge models),” Wamsi Mohan, technology research analyst at Bank of America, wrote.

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MacDailyNews Take: BofA’s Apple “analysts” prefer to live in fantasyland, choking down Gurman’s summer newsletter filler like it’s manna from heaven, rather than look at the real crux of the issue:
Blind, deaf, and dumb.
We’ve forgotten more about Apple than some of these “analysts” will ever know.

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