Apple shares close lower on Wednesday, Wedbush raises stock price target to $160 on upbeat iPhone 12 sales outlook

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, revised up his 12-month price target on Apple Inc (AAPL) from $150 to $160 and assigned a Street-high bull case target of $200, as he cited the strongest iPhone trajectory since 2014.

Wedbush also maintained an “Outperform” rating on the stock.

Apple shares closed lower for the third time in the past ten trading sessions on NASDAQ on Wednesday. The stock went down 2.09% ($2.60) to $121.78, after touching an intraday high at $125.93, or a price level not seen since September 3rd ($128.84).

Shares of Apple Inc have risen 65.89% so far in 2020 compared with a 13.68% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2019, Apple’s stock went up 86.16%, thus, it again outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 28.88% gain.

“We have not seen a launch uptrend such as this in a number of years for Apple and the only iPhone trajectory similar would be the iPhone 6 in 2014 based on our analysis. Based on lead times on the Apple website as well as our checks, we believe pre-orders tracked more than 2x its predecessor iPhone 11 thus far and is a robust start out of the gates for Cupertino on this flagship supercycle product,” Wedbush’s Ives wrote in an investor note.

The median analyst estimate points to iPhone sales of 215 million units during fiscal year 2021, while Ives’ bull case points to sales of more than 240 million units, or exceeding the record 231 million devices sold in fiscal year 2015.

Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation

According to CNN Money, the 37 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Apple Inc’s stock price, have a median target of $133.00, with a high estimate of $160.00 and a low estimate of $74.10. The median estimate represents a 9.21% upside compared to the closing price of $121.78 on December 9th.

The same media also reported that at least 23 out of 40 surveyed investment analysts had rated Apple Inc’s stock as “Buy”, while 10 – as “Hold”. On the other hand, 2 analysts had recommended selling the stock.