Apple Stock Is A Buy: This Expert Pounds The Table (Again)

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Apple stock (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. Report is still in the penalty box. Shares of the Cupertino company have been down 22% so far this year (see chart below, blue line), after logging another ugly week of losses at the end of May 20.

But one traditionally bullish analyst is far from giving up on his top pick. Wedbush’s Dan Ives appeared on CNBC, after Friday’s closing bell, to “pound the table” on the investment opportunity that Apple’s recent share price decline has unveiled.

Figure 1: Apple and S&P 500 performance year-to-date. — **Figure 1:** Apple and S&P 500 performance year-to-date.

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AAPL down: Ives is still a bull

During a conversation with Dan Ives, CNBC anchor Scott Wapner pressed the Wall Street analyst on his upbeat views of the iPhone maker. Dan cited his channel checks to support the idea that unit sales could be even better than he previously expected.

The observation is in line with Mr. Ives’ conviction about the ongoing supercycle that was merely triggered by the 5G transition. The expert has been talking about a wave of iPhone upgrades since at least the time that we spoke, back in July 2021 — but likely for much longer.

In addition to optimism toward device sales, the Wedbush analyst reiterated the importance of Apple’s service segment. He values this business alone at over $1 trillion, supported in great part by an increasing installed base and juicy margins.

When asked about the market’s bearish behavior — investors don’t seem to care all that much about company-specific fundamentals in 2022, certainly not in the tech space — Dan looked further out into the future.

The analyst made it clear that there is nothing stopping Apple stock from dipping to $125 per share in the near term, for example. But think about the next few months, and Mr. Ives believes that AAPL “will be a stock with a 2 in front of it [meaning, $200-plus] by the end of the year”.

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