Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
Apple’s latest launch event has revealed the company’s iPhone 16 to the market – along with expected upgrades to its Apple Watch and Airpod product lines – something which Apple fanatics were closely watching. And markets were watching, too.
The only problem is: stocks actually slumped during the event. Perhaps this isn’t the boon for Apple that was expected.
But, after all, it’s NO question why markets were watching. The company remains the most valued in the world.
This is in so small part because Apple is no small part of the much-touted Magnificent 7, a basket of tech megacap stocks largely responsible for the S&P 500’s multi-dozen broken all-time-high records through 2024 YTD.
And for anyone looking to invest iin publicly-listed shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), it could be ‘go time’ – or, “Glowtime,” to use the company’s own parlance.
Apple’s Glowtime event, which took place on Monday September 9 US time, was hotly anticipated. And more than one analyst had already put their weight behind the stock ahead of its product launch extravaganza, expecting further revenue streams to be all but locked in.
Of course, shares didn’t react quite as strong as anticipated.
The iPhone 16 is an AI story
No small part of that was Apple Intelligence (AI) – a play on the well-known Artificial Intelligence, or AI, acronym.
Can an iPhone 16 – powered by AI – be enough to offset recent hardship for the company? So far, the evidence suggests otherwise. Of course, the glowtime event is now over.
Apple shareholders had already experienced some panic in the recent past: Warren Buffet, helming Berkshire Hathaway, recently sold-off a considerable stake in Apple.
Around the same time, a US court ruled Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) had been acting anticompetitively which relates to Apple through deals the latter has with Alphabet when it comes to default search and play store settings on the iPhone, iPad, and other Apple products.
Of course, none of this was enough to see Apple truly shed off any extreme level of value So – can Apple’s Glowtime – now that we know it wasn’t enough to immediately turn sentiment upward – see the markets shake off those concerns?
What do experts say?
Analysts at Citigroup think so, or thought so – that investment firm had advised its customers Apple shares are currently a better bet than flavour-of-the-moment market darling NVIDIA.
The numbers spoke for themselves – NVIDIA and Google were both in the red on a one month basis as of 1.30pm AWST on Monday 9 September, while Apple’s firmly in the green +6.7% MoM. Then glowtime took place.
Citi analysts liked Apple’s consistent history of dividend increases; its recent quarterly report which saw Wall Street expectations beat (thanks to iPad sales); a +14% growth in its growing services ecosystem, and, its fiscal management overall.
Maybe an AI-powered iPhone 16 wasn’t quite enough. Then again, markets are fickle. That consideration includes Apple’s move earlier this year to conduct the largest ever share buyback in Wall Street history.
And Citi isn’t alone.
Bank of America (BofA) Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan had whacked a “buy” rating on Apple ahead of its “Glowtime” launch event in particular.
Mohan likes the company’s new product cycle – which he anticipated to drive even further revenue growth – and, like Citi analysts, Apple’s track record of consistent outperformance as a publicly listed risk asset.
It’s not just Citi and BofA, either – Morgan Stanley had also predictrecd Apple’s launch event to be a winner for shareholders, with analysts at the latter also naming Apple it’s top tech stock pick.
It remains to be seen. But for the world’s biggest company – one day of sell-offs isn’t, by any means, the be all and end all.
