Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is trending Monday after JPMorgan raised its price target and BofA reiterated its Buy rating in separate notes on the iPhone 18 cycle and the competitive threat from SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile.
- Apple shares are advancing steadily. Why is AAPL stock advancing?
JPMorgan Says Supplier Cuts Don’t Change the Cycle
JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee raised the price target on Apple stock to $360 from $340 and kept an Overweight rating. The analyst said reports of supplier cuts to volume plans reflect Apple’s new launch cadence, not a weaker cycle.
Apple launched the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max and iPhone Duo this fall, with the base models coming in the spring. Chatterjee trimmed the December-quarter volume estimates and now expects earnings per share of $2.81, about 4% below the consensus estimate of $2.92. The analyst forecasts iPhone shipments of 69 million units, down 18% from a year earlier, but expects a 20% rise in average selling prices to offset most of the drop.
The JPMorgan analyst said cuts to supplier build plans are typical at this point in a product cycle, and that lead times point to resilient demand for the 18 Pro and Pro Max compared with the 17 Pro. With premium prices up about 10%, the analyst believes this cycle is driven by price, not volume.
Starlink Mobile a Subsidy Risk, Not an Earnings Threat
BofA Global Research analysts Wamsi Mohan, Ruplu Bhattacharya and Ryan Seungin Choi reiterated a Buy rating and $370 price objective on Apple in a note on SpaceX’s Oct. 8 agreement to buy Grain Management’s nationwide 800 MHz low-band spectrum.
The analysts see risks to the carrier subsidy model, from a potential competing device, and from integration with the Tesla and SpaceX ecosystem, including Grok. About 53 million U.S. iPhones a year move through the three big carriers with promotional credits of about $800 per unit.
BofA estimates that a 10% shift of the big three’s postpaid phone subscribers to SpaceX could cost Apple about 5 million units, or roughly $6 billion in revenue.
The analysts said earnings risk is limited in the near term and the bigger risk is to Apple’s valuation multiple. They expect real impact in fiscal 2028 or later, and noted that SpaceX hasn’t announced a handset.
Apple Share Edge Higher
AAPL Price Action: At the time of writing, Apple shares are trading 1.27% higher at $340.93, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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