Apple Inc. may meet Wall Street’s expectations when it reports quarterly earnings for June despite macroeconomic headwinds, according to Wedbush. In a note to investors, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said he thinks demand for iPhones is holding up slightly better than expected amid supply issues plaguing the tech industry. He thinks Apple will hit consensus numbers in the third quarter of 2022.
Analysts expect Apple to report revenue of about $82 billion and earnings of $1.16 per share for the month of June.
However, Wall Street still expects Apple to show weakness in the June quarter. According to Ives, “all eyes” are on the iPhone 14 production and demand cycle. Apple is also focused on an aggressive product pipeline into 2023, which could include a new mixed reality headset.
The June quarter will represent a “peak of concern” for Apple’s supply chain issues. Although Apple has warned of a $4 billion to $8 billion revenue hit, Ives expects the impact of any COVID-19 or supply disruptions to subside in the September and December quarters.
Apple’s shipments are key to its ability to weather the macroeconomic storm. Ives still believes in the stickiness of the iPhone upgrade cycle, as roughly 240 million of Apple’s 1 billion iPhone owners have yet to upgrade their devices.
The services sector also looks strong going into the second half of 2022 and into 2023. Ives believes that Apple’s services division is worth more than $1 trillion by itself. When combined with its hardware, he believes the risk/reward is “compelling at current levels”: “While the nervous market backdrop creates a frightening environment for tech stocks, we believe Apple’s growth story remains intact despite the macro uncertainty.”
Ives maintains an Outperform rating on Apple, with a 12-month price target of $200. His target is based on the sum of his 2022 estimates for each component, which is 18 times $1.5 trillion for services and 7 times $2.1 trillion for Apple’s hardware business.
