Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) price target was raised to $200 from $180 at KeyBanc on Tuesday, with the firm maintaining an Overweight rating on the stock.
However, despite the long-term bullish view, analysts told investors that KeyBanc is still neutral on the stock in the near term.
“We reiterate our below consensus Hardware revenue ests. for F3Q23,” they wrote and said they have two concerns about the stock.
“KFLD [Key first look data] (Apple direct channel) shows Indexed Spending for June was +23% m/m vs. the three-year average of +2% m/m, and while our June data was better than the historical avg. for F3Q, our KFLD shows -15% q/q, worse than the three-year historical avg. of -9% q/q,” the analysts explained.
Secondly, KeyBanc believes AAPL’s indirect channel (U.S. Carriers) will be soft, with U.S. upgrade rates moving to historical lows.
“With U.S. sales not tracking great, upside Internationally needs to drive results. Our PT is $200 or 20.8x our 2024 adj. EBITDA estimates,” the analysts concluded.
