Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced MacBook Neo today, March 4, introducing the market to its new lineup of budget-friendly laptops. While the news has generated a lot of discussion about the company’s cheapest portable computer to date, Apple shares still dipped 0.5%.
The reason for the slip is most likely due to a signal analysts describe as “the worst type of bearish crossover,” which has raised the risk of a pullback toward the $200 level. Namely, Apple has crossed the 50-day moving average (MA) below the 100-day moving average on the daily chart, a setup that has historically preceded extended declines.
However, Apple has received a vote of confidence from Bernstein, which reiterated its ‘Outperform’ rating and maintained a $340 price target. The analyst note highlighted Apple Intelligence as a potential driver of faster product replacement cycles and higher services revenue.
According to Bernstein’s estimates, accelerated upgrade activity could lift earnings per share (EPS) by 13%. In addition, premium-tier monetization of Apple Intelligence could furnish an extra 16% upside stemming from. This analysis, therefore, assumes that on-device AI processing requirements may compel users to upgrade their hardware, reversing the long-standing trend of elongation.
Wall Street still bullish on Apple
Barclays analyst Tim Long also raised his Apple stock price target to $248 on March 3, albeit while calling the stock a ‘Sell,’ showing some mixed sentiments towards the company’s potential.
Overall, though, Wall Street remains bullish on Apple. With the latest Barclays price target, the consensus on TipRanks at the time of writing, based on 26 analysts, stands at $307.16, implying potential upside of about 16.5% from the latest closing price.
Of the 26 analysts, 16 recommend buying the stock, while nine suggest holding, and just one, Barclays, thinks selling it is the way to go.
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