Apple drew a bullish view from Bank of America Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan, who maintained a Buy rating and a $380 price forecast while pointing to services growth, capital returns, and future AI opportunities.
BofA Highlights App Store And Services GrowthMohan said Apple’s App Store revenue rose 3.2% year over year to $8.8 billion in the full fiscal third quarter of 2026, while total iPhone and iPad downloads increased 1.3% to 8.7 billion.
He also noted that App Store dollars per download rose 1.9% year over year to $1.01.
BofA models 14% year-over-year growth for Apple’s total services revenue in the fiscal third quarter of 2026.
Mohan kept his $380 price forecast, based on the 37 times calendar 2027 estimated EPS of $10.27.
Analyst Sees AI And New Products As Upside DriversMohan said BofA remains positive on Apple because of strong capital returns, its potential to become a winner in edge AI, and optionality from new products and markets.
He said the Supreme Court’s decision to hear Apple’s appeal in the Epic Games case is a constructive development as Apple continues to defend its App Store economics.
Mohan also viewed Apple’s new Siri AI architecture, combined with Apple silicon, as an important unlock for future hardware-driven and AI-enabled monetization opportunities.
Technical Picture Remains ConstructiveApple continues to trade in an established uptrend. The stock was trading at $306.64, about 4.3% above its 20-day simple moving average of $294.76 and 13.6% above its 200-day moving average of $270.69. The 20-day average also remains above the 50-day moving average, reinforcing the positive trend.
Momentum indicators also remain supportive. The moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator is above its signal line, suggesting buying momentum continues to outweigh selling pressure.
The next technical resistance sits near $317.50, close to the stock’s 52-week high of $317.40. Initial support is around $287.50, near the cluster of the 20-day and 50-day moving averages.
Earnings Remain the Next Major CatalystApple is expected to report quarterly results on July 30. Wall Street expects earnings of $1.89 per share, up from $1.57 a year earlier, on revenue of $108.86 billion compared with $94.04 billion in the year-ago period.
The stock trades at about 35.6 times earnings, reflecting a premium valuation.
Analysts remain broadly positive. Evercore ISI maintained an Outperform rating with a $365 price forecast on June 25. KGI Securities downgraded the stock to Hold with a $315 price forecast on June 22. Bank of America maintained its Buy rating and a $380 price forecast on June 18.
Apple Price ActionAAPL Stock Price Activity: Apple shares were up 4.16% at $306.64 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo via Shutterstock
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Our 24/7 Wall St. Price Target for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) is $336.98 over the next 12 months, pointing to 9.4% upside from the current $308.30. We rate shares a BUY with high (90%) confidence. A foldable iPhone is a real positive catalyst, and we treat $400 as a 2029 to 2030 story on realistic timing.
24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $308.30 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $336.98 Upside 9.4% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% An iPhone Cycle Firing on All Cylinders Apple is up 42.3% over the past year and 13.3% YTD, trading roughly 3% from its 52-week high of $317.40. Q2 FY26 delivered $111.18 billion in revenue (+16.6% YoY) and EPS of $2.01, beating the $1.94 estimate. iPhone revenue hit $56.99 billion and Services set another all-time record at $30.98 billion. Tim Cook cited “extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup“. That marks eight straight quarters of EPS beats, with the board authorizing a fresh $100 billion buyback alongside a 4% dividend hike to $0.27 per share, the company’s 14th straight annual dividend increase amid a trifecta of cash flow, management shuffle and seemingly insatiable demand for its iPhone.
How We Calculated $336.98 Our proprietary model blends multiple valuation approaches with factor-based adjustments. We weigh a trailing P/E-derived price of $302.93, a forward P/E-derived price of $284.10, and the $315.09 analyst consensus target at a 30% weight, producing a pre-adjustment weighted price of $297.16.
Our proprietary 247Factor multiplier of 1.134 reflects technology sector momentum, 63% bullish analyst consensus, 21.8% YoY earnings growth, and proximity to the 52-week high. A mega-cap dampening adjustment (50% reduction on a $4.25 trillion market cap) prevents the model from running toward $400 in a single year.
The Case for $400 and a Foldable iPhone The foldable is the marquee catalyst. Per Nikkei Asia, Apple plans to launch five new iPhones into early 2027, including roughly 10 million foldable units. Against total 2026 iPhone production of about 220 million, that represents just under 5% of the mix at a premium average selling price (ASP) that could disproportionately lift revenue and gross margin. Q2 gross margin expanded to 49.3%, well above the aforementioned 46% floor that would concern bears. Polymarket traders assign 87.5% probability to a foldable shipping before 2027. Bank of America maintains a Buy with a $380 price target, and the high end of Wall Street reaches $400. Our bull case one-year target is $352.13, and the five-year bull case is $458.80, with $400 first breached by January 2029 at $396.48.
What Could Go Wrong Memory costs are rising, and Apple negotiates with two banned Chinese RAM suppliers to secure inventory. Management flagged “significantly higher memory costs” ahead. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Epic Games App Store contempt case, and an adverse ruling on the 27% external payment fee could reset Services economics. Bears note that R&D acceleration is compressing near-term margins even as it funds the foldable and AI roadmap, and question whether the long-term payoff justifies the current multiple. Our bear-case one-year scenario lands at $290.08.
Our Take on Apple Here The 24/7 Wall St. Price Target of $336.98 and BUY rating rest on double-digit revenue growth across every geography, a Services record streak, and a credible foldable catalyst priced at only 56.9 composite sentiment. The bullish thesis strengthens if Apple executes the 2027 foldable launch and Services holds double-digit growth. The thesis weakens if memory costs compress gross margin below 46% or the App Store ruling breaks against Apple. On balance, the setup skews constructive.
The consensus supports the constructive view. Thirty-eight analysts covering the current fiscal year project $478.12B in revenue, up 14.89% from $416.16B a year ago, with the high estimate reaching $485.35B. The current June quarter alone is expected to deliver $108.9B, a 15.81% year-over-year jump from $94.04B, suggesting momentum is already building before the foldable ships. The September quarter, historically Apple’s iPhone launch window, carries a $114.22B consensus estimate, up 11.47% year over year, which would capture early foldable demand if the timeline holds.
Looking into 2027, the 41-analyst consensus sits at $520.42B, though the high estimate stretches to $594.86B, a range that likely reflects uncertainty around foldable adoption rates and the ASP lift a premium device at scale could deliver.
Apple Price Prediction 2026-2030 Under the base case, AAPL crosses $400 by January 2030.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $336.98 2027 $362.70 2028 $390.55 2029 $421.30 2030 $442.23 These projections assume Apple executes on iPhone, Services, and its 2027 foldable launch. Significant upside or downside could result from an App Store regulatory reset or a step-change in AI monetization.
• Micron Technology stock is feeling bearish pressure. Why is MU stock dropping?
S&P 500 2026 PredictionsSimilar to making changes to top stocks midway through the year, Woods is slightly tweaking his forecast for the S&P 500 for the rest of 2026.
"I give those end-of-year targets for fun and I don’t like to change them in the middle of the year," Woods tells Benzinga in an exclusive interview.
With the S&P 500 trading near 7,500 at the time of the interview, Woods said it’s hard to know if the market index has peaked for 2026.
Based on seasonality, historical patterns and market rotation, Woods lays out his best guess of what happens for the second half of 2026.
"I can see a drawdown of 10% from our peak, which would give us a trip back below 7,000 in the coming three to four months and then we rally after this election is over. That’s how the cycle plays out."
Woods predicts that the S&P 500, which is tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) cold close the year out at the 7,650 or 7,700 level.
"I still think if we finish this year at 7,200, at 7,300, it’s a successful year."
One of the keys to where the S&P 500 trades in the second half is earnings reports before the end of the year.
"Do we reward companies for good earnings or do we keep them where they are?" Woods said. "I think Micron is now the new tell. It’s been Nvidia forever. It was Apple for years. There was Microsoft for years."
Woods thinks Micron is now the best representative to the market based on its extreme growth and how investors react to earnings reports.
"Their earnings are growing hand over fist. You cannot put enough superlatives on what they’re doing, but price action’s starting to slow."
Micron reported third-quarter financial earnings in late June, with fourth-quarter results expected to be reported in September.
Woods recalls Nvidia stock being on an unstoppable run until the third quarter of 2023, when price action did not respond to the company’s biggest blowout quarter ever.
"The momentum was lost. And when I look at momentum indicators in Micron, I see a divergence. It’s a bearish divergence."
Micron is a great long-term stock according to Woods, who predicts the company could have a future market capitalization of $2.5 trillion or more.
Woods cautions that the stock is likely to consolidate from here and it could take some time to "take that next leg higher."
"Micron will be the one to watch."
Photo Courtesy: Piotr Swat on Shutterstock.com
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Delivra Health Brands Inc. (TSX-V:DHB, OTCQB:DHBUF, FRA:3F0) has launched its LivRelief Itch Relief Cream in the Canadian market, expanding its portfolio of over-the-counter health and wellness products.
The company said the product is now available through its distributors, retail partners and e-commerce channels.
The cream is designed to provide temporary relief from itching associated with eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis and minor skin irritations, including insect bites and exposure to poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac. Delivra Health said the formulation combines hydrocortisone, calendula and chamomile to help reduce itch, irritation and inflammation, and is hypoallergenic, fragrance-free and free from parabens, petroleum and sodium lauryl sulfate.
The launch comes as skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis remain widespread in Canada. Delivra Health cited data from the Canadian Dermatology Association indicating that up to 17% of Canadians experience atopic dermatitis during their lifetime, while Psoriasis Canada estimates that more than one million Canadians are affected by psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis.
Delivra CEO Gord Davey wrote that the launch expands the LivRelief product line beyond its chronic pain offerings and represents a new addition to the company's innovation pipeline.
"Our Itch Relief Cream product is designed to provide Canadians with a convenient and trusted option to help manage skin irritation and discomfort, and as such, this motivated us to accelerate our launch in June 2026,” Davey said.
Dr. Joseph Gabriele, inventor of the LivRelief brand, wrote that the cream was developed to help individuals manage common dermatological conditions and improve quality of life.
Trust Stamp Inc (NASDAQ:IDAI, ISE:AIID) has filed a US provisional patent application for an artificial intelligence-based medical diagnostic support system aimed at helping physicians evaluate diagnoses while addressing common limitations of large language models (LLMs).
The patent application, titled "Medical Diagnostic Assurance System" (MDAS), was filed on June 15, 2026. The company said the technology is designed to reduce issues such as confirmation bias and AI hallucinations that can produce inaccurate or fabricated information.
According to Trust Stamp, MDAS is intended to function as a self-contained sovereign platform that tokenizes patient identities to help safeguard medical records from third-party access. The system is designed for use by qualified medical practitioners.
Rather than generating an initial diagnosis, MDAS uses a three-model consensus process to independently assess and either challenge or support a physician's diagnosis without first being exposed to that original assessment, a design the company said is intended to limit bias.
Trust Stamp CEO Gareth Genner said that reducing sycophantic behavior in LLMs is particularly important in healthcare, where unreliable AI outputs could have serious consequences.
He added that the company is negotiating a pilot program for MDAS and expects the technology to go live in the first quarter of 2027.
The filing expands the company's intellectual property portfolio, which includes 27 issued or allowed patents and seven pending patent applications related to artificial intelligence, biometrics and cryptography.
Demand for Apple Inc's (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) iPhone is strengthening in the United States and Europe but weakening in China, according to a new consumer survey from UBS.
The Swiss bank polled more than 7,500 smartphone users across the United States, United Kingdom, China, Germany and Japan to gauge appetite for a new handset.
The share of American consumers planning to buy an iPhone in the next 12 months rose to around 20%, up from the year before.
Purchase intent also climbed in the United Kingdom and Germany, but slipped in China to roughly 15%, a new low for the second quarter in the survey's history.
UBS said the Chinese reading was a concern, given the country accounts for about a fifth of iPhone sales and may signal wider economic and competitive pressures.
The findings come ahead of an event in September at which Apple is widely expected to launch its first foldable iPhone.
The survey found that appetite for a foldable made by Apple was far higher than for foldable phones in general, a gap UBS reads as a positive sign for demand.
The bank believes a foldable device would give consumers a more compelling reason to upgrade than the artificial intelligence features Apple unveiled at its developer conference in June.
Interest in those Apple Intelligence features has cooled, with the proportion of respondents saying the technology would prompt them to upgrade sooner falling to about 24%.
Nearly a third said the features would have no bearing on their decision to buy a new phone.
Apple retained the strongest customer loyalty of any handset maker, with about 86% of iPhone owners saying their next phone would also be an iPhone.
UBS kept a 'neutral' rating on Apple shares, with a price target of $296 against a closing price of $287.55.
The bank argued the current valuation, at about 31 times expected earnings, already reflects improving demand.
It flagged possible price rises linked to higher memory costs, alongside uncertainty over Apple's product roadmap, as factors capping the shares.
I keep hitting the buy button on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), and I stopped apologizing for it a long time ago. Every time a fresh paycheck lands, or a dividend clears, or the stock takes a breather, I add. This is the position in my brokerage account that I plan to hand down for the long term.
The pull is simple. Apple sits inside 2.5+ billion active devices that people voluntarily carry, wear, and open every day. That is a distribution utility with a luxury margin bolted on top. When a company owns the front door to that many pockets, revenue becomes a rhythm.
The three receipts I keep coming back to First, the earnings cadence. Apple has now beaten EPS estimates for eight consecutive quarters. In the most recent March quarter, revenue came in at $111.18B, up 16.6% YoY, with EPS of $2.01 versus a $1.94 estimate.
The quarter before that put up $143.76B in revenue, up 15.7%, with operating cash flow of $53.93B, up 80.1% YoY. Growth is accelerating from the 6% to 9% band of Q3 to Q4 FY25 into the mid-teens. That is the shape of a company hitting a new gear.
Second, Services. This is the piece I care about most as a holder. Services printed $30.98B in Q2 FY26, an all-time record, on top of $30.01B the prior quarter. Recurring, high-margin, sticky revenue attached to that installed base is what turns Apple from a hardware cycle stock into a compounding platform.
Tim Cook framed the quarter as “our best March quarter ever, with revenue of $111.2 billion and double-digit growth across every geographic segment.”
Third, the capital return machine. The board just raised the dividend 4% to $0.27 per share and authorized a fresh $100B buyback. In Q1 FY26 alone, Apple returned nearly $32B to shareholders, and full-year FY2025 buybacks totaled $90.71B.
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Profitability sits at 32% operating margin and 26.9% net margin, with an ROE of 141.5%. Every share I own becomes a larger slice of a widening pie, quarter after quarter.
The risk I refuse to wave off China. Apple discloses reliance on third-party components and manufacturing, trade disputes, and geopolitical tensions as real risks, and Greater China softened in Q4 FY25 to $14.49B from $15.03B. Retail chatter picked up on this too, with a Reddit post about Apple seeking memory chips from a blacklisted Chinese company pushing sentiment into the bearish 36 to 47 range in late June.
I hold that risk in view every time I add. What has not changed is the response. Greater China rebounded to $25.53B in Q1 FY26 (up from $18.51B) and $20.50B in Q2 FY26. The company keeps solving the problem I am worried about.
Why the buy button stays green Valuation is not cheap at a P/E of 39x and a forward P/E of 30x. I pay it willingly.
Analyst consensus sits at a $315.09 target with 63% bullish ratings, and the stock has delivered 1,248.62% over ten years. Incoming CEO John Ternus told the Street this is “the most exciting time in my 25-year career at Apple Inc. to be building products and services.”
I believe him, because the receipts back him up. As long as the installed base grows and Services keeps compounding, I keep buying, and the next decade takes care of itself.
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Apple stock is trading at elevated levels. Where are AAPL shares going? What Is Driving Apple’s Recent Price Increases?Apple raised prices on several hardware products—MacBook Neo, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, iPad Air, HomePod, HomePod mini and Apple TV—while leaving iPhone pricing unchanged, citing tightening memory and storage supplies as AI infrastructure spending accelerates. The move lines up with Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra’s view that memory markets could stay tight beyond calendar 2027.
Apple’s latest round of increases includes a $100 jump on the MacBook Neo to $699 and a $200 increase on the MacBook Air 512GB to $1,299, raising the stakes on whether demand holds as sticker prices rise. Bigger-ticket moves like iPad Air 128GB going from $599 to $749 and iPad Pro WiFi 256GB from $999 to $1,199 put the margin-versus-units tradeoff front and center.
Apple’s supply strategy is also shifting from cost control to outright availability, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warning the "memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027" as AI data centers absorb capacity. Kuo estimates 15% to 20% of memory capacity allocated to consumer electronics in 2026 could be redirected to AI data centers in 2027.
Critical Price Levels To Watch For AAPLApple is sitting right on top of its short-term trend gauges, trading essentially flat versus the 20-day SMA ($294.88) and modestly above the 50-day SMA ($292.67), which often translates into choppy, headline-driven action rather than a clean momentum run. The bigger-picture trend still leans constructive, with price about 6.6% above the 100-day SMA ($276.59) and about 9.1% above the 200-day SMA ($270.33).
RSI is the cleaner momentum lens here: at 50.78, it’s neutral, which fits a stock that’s digesting gains rather than pressing into overbought territory. RSI measures how "stretched" a move is, and this reading implies neither buyers nor sellers have a clear momentum edge right now.
The moving-average structure remains supportive, with the 20-day SMA above the 50-day SMA and a golden cross (50-day SMA above 200-day SMA) that formed in September 2025 still intact. Key turning points to keep in mind: RSI pushed into overbought territory in June (near the recent swing high and 52-week high), while the more recent swing low in April is the last obvious higher-low reference on the chart.
Key Resistance: $302.50 — a nearby pivot area that sits above the current price and can act as the next "prove it" level for a breakout attempt Key Support: $287.50 — a nearby floor that’s below the 20-day/50-day area and would be a key line to defend if the stock slips back into its recent range What Is Apple and How Does It Operate?Apple is among the largest companies in the world, with a broad portfolio of hardware and software products aimed at consumers and businesses. The iPhone drives the majority of sales, and products like the Mac, iPad, and Watch are built around the iPhone as the center of a wider ecosystem.
That ecosystem matters for today’s news because component costs (like memory and storage) can ripple across multiple device lines at once, not just one product cycle. Apple also designs its own software and semiconductors and relies on partners like Foxconn and TSMC to manufacture products and chips, which makes supply-chain constraints and pricing power a recurring theme for investors.
Apple Earnings Preview: What Analysts ExpectLooking further out, the next major catalyst for the stock arrives with the July 30, 2026 (estimated) earnings report.
EPS Estimate: $1.89 (Up from $1.57 YoY) Revenue Estimate: $108.86 Billion (Up from $94.04 Billion YoY) Valuation: P/E of 35.6x (Indicates premium valuation relative to peers) Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price target of $324.16. Recent analyst moves include:
Evercore ISI Group: Outperform (Maintains Target to $365.00) (June 25) KGI Securities: Downgraded to Hold (Target $315.00) (June 22) B of A Securities: Buy (Maintains Target to $380.00) (June 18) How $1,000 Invested In Apple Would Have PerformedA $1,000 investment in Apple Inc. on July 2, 2021, would have grown to $2,135 by July 1, 2026—a 113.5% return over the period, excluding dividends. The stake swung between $907 and more than $2,000 along the way.
After starting on July 2, 2021, the position hit its period low on January 5, 2023, before recovering and later reaching a period high on June 2, 2026. The journey included a maximum drawdown of -33.4%. By July 1, 2026, the investment finished the five-year stretch at $2,135.
Apple’s 16.4% annualized return outpaced the S&P 500’s 11.6% annualized gain and edged the Nasdaq 100’s 15.3% annualized return over the same holding period. A separate five-year snapshot pegged Apple’s average annual return at 15.04% and put a $1,000 stake at $2,054.35.
Apple Inc. has a market capitalization of about $4.34 trillion. The stock’s current P/E is 35.6, and its current dividend yield is 0.37%.
Apple Benzinga Edge Rankings: Strengths and WeaknessesBelow is the Benzinga Edge scorecard for Apple, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses compared to the broader market:
The Verdict: Apple’s Benzinga Edge signal reveals a quality-and-momentum-led setup with a clear premium-valuation tradeoff. For longer-term bulls, the trend stays intact above the major moving averages, but the low Value score means the stock may need clean follow-through (or strong guidance) to push through resistance.
AAPL Stock Price Activity AAPL Stock Price Activity: Apple shares were trading 1.73% higher at $299.46 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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As Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock opened the second half of 2026 with a bullish outlook, David Vogt, an analyst from UBS, reiterated a neutral sentiment.
In a note to clients on July 1, Vogt maintained a Hold rating for AAPL stock. The Wall Street analyst set his 12-month target for Apple stock price at $296, which was almost hit during the premarket trading session on July 2.
According to the report, UBS’s Evidence Lab survey of over 7,500 smartphone users across key markets revealed mixed signals for Apple. While iPhone purchase intent in the United States (U.S.) rose approximately 300 basis points year-over-year to around 20%, demand in China continued to soften, falling 100 basis points to roughly 15%.
Stronger gains were seen in the United Kingdom (UK), where the increase reached 600 basis points (bps), and in Germany, where it rose by 400 bps. The survey also showed the average age of iPhones in use edged lower to 22.9 months, though it remains near recent highs.
On the software side, enthusiasm for Apple Intelligence news appeared to cool, with the percentage of respondents who said they would upgrade sooner for those capabilities falling 500 basis points, to about 24%. Vogt noted that net interest in a potential Apple foldable iPhone also slipped modestly compared with the prior survey.
Apple stock price forecast and performance Following the UBS rating, Apple stock has received 30 analyst reviews over the past three months, according to data from TipRanks. Notably, the company’s shares have received an average 12-month price forecast of about $324.40 and a Moderate Buy.
Apple stock price forecast. Source: TipRanks From a technical analysis standpoint, Apple stock has been attempting to maintain bullish sentiment after closing June in the red.
AAPL stock 1-day chart. Source: TradingView During Thursday’s premarket, AAPL stock hovered around $295.29, with the daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) signaling a potential bullish reversal. The near-term technical reversal is also bolstered by analysts’ bullish sentiments.
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Apple plans to launch at least five new iPhone models between the second half of this year and the first half of 2027, while increasing production plans for foldable devices, as it looks to vie for a greater slice of the market amid an industrywide component supply shortage, Nikkei Asia reported Thursday.
The U.S. tech giant has instructed suppliers to prepare to produce about 10 million foldable iPhones this year, up from an earlier forecast of 7 million to 8 million units, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Ahead of launching its first-ever foldable device, Apple has already secured components for about 80 million smartphones spread across new models for the second half of 2026, according to Nikkei Asia.
Apple's total smartphone production for 2026 is expected to exceed 220 million units, the report said. Its scale and purchasing power in sourcing memory and components remain significantly stronger than most of its peers, even as shortages driven by AI-related demand ripple through the industry.
This has allowed Apple to navigate supply shortages better than Chinese rivals such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, which have each slashed their annual production targets to below 100 million units, Nikkei Asia reported.
"Compared with Apple's bargaining power, the Chinese smartphone makers are in a weak spot in terms of getting more supplies of memory chips or increasing the prices," an executive at a supplier for both Apple and Xiaomi told Nikkei Asia. "It gives Apple a good motivation to launch the iPhones in spring and take more of their share."
Apple's efforts to secure components come as a global memory shortage driven by demand from artificial intelligence data centers pushes up costs across the industry.
Bloomberg reported Thursday that Apple is in talks to source memory chips for devices sold in China from Chinese manufacturers ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies, both of which are included on a Pentagon list of companies alleged to support Beijing's military. Apple has not confirmed the discussions, and Bloomberg reported that negotiations remain ongoing.
Apple is reportedly seeking to broaden its supplier base as memory shortages strain production across the consumer electronics sector.
Apple plans to introduce at least two new iPhones in the first half of 2027, including the standard iPhone 18 and a new iPhone Air, according to Nikkei Asia.
The aggressive product roadmap comes after Apple implemented price hikes for its MacBook and iPad lineups last week as memory and storage costs surged.
Apple did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Apple stock NASDAQ:AAPL remained in focus on Thursday after reports of an expanded iPhone launch cycle, setting up a familiar split screen for investors: a powerful company, but a stock that no longer looks cheap.
The catalyst was a Nikkei Asia report that Apple is preparing at least five new iPhone models across the second half of 2026 and the first half of 2027.
The timing matters because the plan lands just as an AI-led memory shortage is raising costs across the consumer electronics supply chain.
Apple is planning one of its most ambitious iPhone cycles in years.
Nikkei Asia reported that the company wants to launch at least five new models through early 2027, while also lifting its foldable iPhone production target to about 10 million units this year, up from an earlier forecast of 7 million to 8 million.
That would put Apple directly into a foldable market already contested by Samsung and Huawei.
For bulls, the timing could be powerful. Morgan Stanley analysts have said Apple has a path to more than 250 million iPhone shipments in FY27, helped by stronger upgrade rates and the first foldable iPhone.
Their bull case values the stock at $376 if foldables and AI drive stronger demand.
The bear case is that investors may be getting ahead of the market.
Jefferies recently downgraded Apple to Underperform, warning that expectations around upcoming iPhone models and the upgrade cycle had become unrealistic.
The bigger problem is not whether Apple can build excitement, but whether it can protect margins while doing so.
The AI data-centre boom has tightened the supply of DRAM and NAND chips, the same memory components used in phones, tablets and laptops.
As per JPMorgan data, memory could account for about 45% of iPhone production costs by 2027.
That leaves Apple with an awkward choice. It can absorb higher component costs and pressure margins, or pass more of those costs to consumers and risk slowing upgrades.
That tension was already visible in June, when Apple raised prices on Macs, iPads and other products because of memory costs.
The investor reaction was immediate as Apple stock fell 6.12% to $275.15 on June 25 after the price-hike news.
Wall Street is split between product-cycle optimism and valuation discipline.
KGI Securities downgraded Apple to Hold from Outperform with a $315 price target, signalling limited upside after the stock’s strong run.
Others remain more constructive. TD Cowen raised its Apple target to $350 from $335 and kept a Buy rating.
Maxim Group also raised its target to $350 from $310, with analyst Tom Forte saying Apple’s WWDC presentation showed “meaningful improvements” in its AI efforts and could support both services and hardware sales.
Apple remains resilient amid industry-wide memory chip shortages, leveraging strong supplier agreements and a robust services segment to protect margins. I expect Q3 2026 revenue of $107–$109B and EPS of $1.80–$1.84, with a reiterated price target of $290, reflecting optimism from upcoming Siri AI enhancements and product launches. Despite recent price hikes and margin pressures, AAPL's negative 62-day cash conversion cycle and stable inventory management position it ahead of peers like Dell and HP.
Image Credits:Brian Heater Apple reportedly has plans to release several new iPad Pros and a new MacBook Pro in the first half of next year.
The company is currently working on four models of the new tablet with faster chips, Bloomberg reported. It is also developing a new “entry-level” MacBook Pro, which is internally referred to as K104, the outlet writes. The company is also targeting that same period for the release of its first M7 processor.
The last time Apple released an iPad Pro was in October of last year. In March, the company released a new high-end MacBook Pro and the budget laptop MacBook Neo, albeit the Neo uses the A18 chip, originally designed for the iPhone. This anticipated new MacBook is expected to be a full-fledged Pro.
The apparent product plans come amidst whisperings of other upcoming releases (including, perhaps, a foldable phone) as the company preps for its post-Tim Cook-as-CEO era while also battling supply chain issues that Cook says have forced it to raise its prices. Those price hikes have been substantial in some cases. The MacBook Pro with 1 terabyte of storage recently jumped from $1,699 to $1,999, for instance. So if the company is working on more budget-friendly laptops and tablets, this would be a good time to introduce them.
Apple did not immediately respond to our request for more information.
A not-so-small vulnerability in Apple's Hide My Email feature lets malicious actors see anyone's real email address, according to reports on Wednesday.
The co-founder of the Easy Opt Out service, Tyler Murphy, who spoke to 404 Media, said Apple has known about the problem for over a year but has not yet fixed the bug.
Hide My Email is an iCloud Plus service (starting at $1 per month), offering tools similar to any disposable or temporary email site. It lets you create an anonymized email address with the icloud.com domain for use when you don't want to share your real email address. The alias then expires after a set amount of time.
Such email aliases are common to ensure privacy when you sign up for new website or app accounts, test out coupons or download free versions of software or trial programs. If that service is later hacked, your real email won't be at stake.
While Murphy didn't give specifics on how the vulnerability works, he told 404 Media that Easy Opt Out had run tests with volunteers and that 100% of the Hide My Email addresses could be used to uncover the real address with basic identity search sites available to anyone. 404 Media did not disclose the details of the security issue because it could still be exploited at the time of its reporting.
Murphy reported that he notified Apple of the problem in June 2025. In March 2026, Apple said that it had addressed the problem, but Murphy found the vulnerability still existed.
By May 2026, Apple was reporting that it was still investigating the problem and requested that Murphy not go public, saying, "To avoid placing our customers at risk, we would appreciate you not disclosing this information until our investigation is complete." Murphy disagreed and unveiled his discoveries.
A representative from Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
If you use Hide My Email, you may want to stop for now. Keep an eye out over the next few months, as an Apple news report says the tech giant is planning updates to the tool this summer. One of those updates involves changing the domain from "icloud.com" to "private.icloud.com."
We're not sure why Apple is making that domain change, but it could make it easier for websites to automatically block any address that includes "private.icloud.com," which could push people into sharing their real email addresses instead of using an alias. That would significantly decrease the feature's value.
In the latest trading session, Apple (AAPL - Free Report) closed at $294.38, marking a +1.73% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.22%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.03%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.66%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of iPhones, iPads and other products had lost 8.2% lagged the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 2.58% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.21%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Apple in its forthcoming earnings report. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.88, marking a 19.75% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $108.71 billion, up 15.6% from the year-ago period.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $8.74 per share and a revenue of $478.03 billion, signifying shifts of +17.16% and +14.87%, respectively, from the last year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Apple. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. As of now, Apple holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Apple is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 33.1. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 22.98, which means Apple is trading at a premium to the group.
Investors should also note that AAPL has a PEG ratio of 2.52 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Computer - Micro Computers industry held an average PEG ratio of 2.52.
The Computer - Micro Computers industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 21, putting it in the top 9% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Apple (AAPL, Financials) is facing new pressure in Russia after the country's antitrust regulator accused the company of discriminating against local search eng
Apple’s Hide My Email feature is a convenient privacy tool that uses disposable addresses to hide a user’s true email for the sake of online anonymity. Unfortunately, new research appears to show that a bug in the feature allows users’ real email addresses to be unmasked.
The bug was reported by 404 Media, which says that it has tested and verified that the vulnerability exists. Tyler Murphy, the researcher who found the bug, said that he warned Apple about the problem over a year ago and that it was unclear why the company had yet to remedy the problem. All of the attempts to exploit the bug have been successful, Murphy added.
“We don’t know the full scope of the issue, but in our limited tests with volunteers, 100% of Hide My Email addresses were exploitable,” Murphy told the outlet. Details of the vulnerability haven’t been publicly disclosed, for fear that it will be exploited.
Murphy is the co-founder of EasyOptOuts, which offers a paid data-removal service that takes your information off of data broker sites. He told 404 Media that “publicly accessible people-search sites make it easy to link an email address to other personal details, so people relying on Hide My Email for safety may be at risk.”
TechCrunch reached out to Apple for more information and will update this story if it responds.
When it comes to the tech world, privacy tools are hard to come by and, unfortunately, even when they do exist, they don’t always work. Apple has been accused of this sort of thing before.
Case in point: The company was sued in 2022 after it was reported that iPhone apps continued to send analytics data to Apple even when the iPhone Analytics privacy setting was turned on.
Similarly, in 2023, researchers found another one of Apple’s privacy features to be effectively “useless.” The research claimed that a tool that was supposed to anonymize mobile users’ Wi-Fi connections by providing randomized MAC addresses (an easily trackable identifier) was simply exposing the user’s real MAC address.
Apple has built a large part of its reputation and branding on user privacy, so hopefully it manages to address the apparent Hide My Email bug with some expedience. If it can learn to better stand behind its privacy promises, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world either.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Lucas is a senior writer at TechCrunch, where he covers artificial intelligence, consumer tech, and startups. He previously covered AI and cybersecurity at Gizmodo. You can contact Lucas by emailing [email protected].
An Apple logo is seen at the entrance of an Apple Store in downtown Brussels, Belgium March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
CompaniesMOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Russia's anti-monopoly watchdog has issued a warning to iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, urging the company to address what it described as discriminatory practices against Russian search engines and software.
The Federal Antimonopoly Service said Apple must ensure Russian software, including search engines and messenger Max, is pre-installed on its devices.
The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
If the company fails to remedy the violations by July 15, it could face a fine of up to 4 billion roubles ($51.6 million).
($1 = 77.4955 roubles)
Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Key Takeaways Apple is using AI across Creator Studio, services and hardware to support revenue growth.Apple's Services revenues rose 14% to $30.98B in fiscal Q2, making up 27.9% of sales.AAPL shares are up 6.4% YTD, trailing the sector's 15.7%, while trading at a premium valuation. Apple (AAPL - Free Report) is increasingly leveraging AI as a core driver of revenue growth across its services and hardware businesses. Management is positioning Apple Intelligence as deeply integrated into the company’s ecosystem rather than as a standalone AI product. The company recently introduced major updates to Apple Creator Studio, expanding AI-powered capabilities across its creative applications for Mac, iPad and iPhone. The enhancements strengthen integration between apps, allowing users to seamlessly edit images across Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Final Cut Pro and Pixelmator Pro, while Logic Pro gains new music creation tools.
Final Cut Pro now features AI-powered Generate Captions, Edit Detection and Auto Mask, enabling automatic subtitle creation, clip reconstruction and precise subject selection for faster video editing. Additional improvements include enhanced Match Color, Advanced Trimming and new Creator Themes. Motion, Compressor and Final Cut Camera also receive updates that improve animation workflows, immersive video support and professional video capture.
Pixelmator Pro now integrates more deeply with Apple’s productivity apps, enabling direct image editing, AI-powered image generation, vector shape creation and access to a curated Content Hub. Keynote, Pages, Numbers and Freeform also gain new productivity features. Meanwhile, Logic Pro introduces a more accurate Chord ID, a new Producer Project, enhanced Alchemy synthesis capabilities and expanded Beat Breaker tools, offering musicians more powerful and intelligent music production workflows.
Last month, Apple launched new features for services users, including improved Flyover views and Local Lists in Apple Maps, flexible sharing options in Find My, the ability to use Visual Intelligence to split bills with Apple Cash, video podcast support across Mac and tvOS, revamped Shared Albums in iCloud, and a new program for Apple Fitness+. These, along with major updates to Apple Creator Studio, are expected to drive the Services business. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, Services revenues grew 14% year over year to $30.98 billion and accounted for 27.9% of sales. For the third quarter of fiscal 2026, Apple expects revenues to grow 14% to 17% year over year, with Services expected to rise at a similar pace after adjusting for foreign exchange.
Apple Faces Stiff CompetitionAAPL is facing stiff competition from the likes of Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) in AI. Alphabet and Microsoft are demonstrating significantly stronger near-term AI monetization and infrastructure execution than Apple. This has spooked investors as concerns continue to grow that Apple risks falling behind in the generative AI race despite its large ecosystem and hardware advantages.
Both Alphabet and Microsoft are already translating AI adoption into accelerating revenue growth across core businesses. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, Microsoft reported that its AI business surpassed a $37 billion annual revenue run rate, growing 123% year over year. AI is driving Alphabet’s Search & Other revenues, which grew 19% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. Gemini Enterprise’s paid monthly active users grew 40% sequentially, while revenues from products built on Google’s generative AI models increased nearly 800% year over year. Alphabet’s total paid subscriptions reached 350 million, driven in part by Gemini app adoption and premium AI plans.
AAPL’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesApple shares have returned 6.4% year to date, underperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s return of 15.7%.
Apple Stock’s Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The AAPL stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month price/earnings of 30.9X compared with the broader sector’s 23.65X. AAPL has a Value Score of D.
AAPL Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $8.74 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days, suggesting 17.2% year-over-year growth.
Apple currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
When deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a stock, investors often rely on analyst recommendations. Media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm-employed (or sell-side) analysts often influence a stock's price, but are they really important?
Let's take a look at what these Wall Street heavyweights have to say about Apple (AAPL - Free Report) before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage.
Apple currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.91, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by 43 brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.91 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy.
Of the 43 recommendations that derive the current ABR, 23 are Strong Buy and three are Buy. Strong Buy and Buy respectively account for 53.5% and 7% of all recommendations.
Brokerage Recommendation Trends for AAPL
Check price target & stock forecast for Apple here>>>
While the ABR calls for buying Apple, it may not be wise to make an investment decision solely based on this information. Several studies have shown limited to no success of brokerage recommendations in guiding investors to pick stocks with the best price increase potential.
Are you wondering why? The vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover often results in a strong positive bias of their analysts in rating it. Our research shows that for every "Strong Sell" recommendation, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations.
In other words, their interests aren't always aligned with retail investors, rarely indicating where the price of a stock could actually be heading. Therefore, the best use of this information could be validating your own research or an indicator that has proven to be highly successful in predicting a stock's price movement.
Zacks Rank, our proprietary stock rating tool with an impressive externally audited track record, categorizes stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), and is an effective indicator of a stock's price performance in the near future. Therefore, using the ABR to validate the Zacks Rank could be an efficient way of making a profitable investment decision.
Zacks Rank Should Not Be Confused With ABRAlthough both Zacks Rank and ABR are displayed in a range of 1--5, they are different measures altogether.
Broker recommendations are the sole basis for calculating the ABR, which is typically displayed in decimals (such as 1.28). The Zacks Rank, on the other hand, is a quantitative model designed to harness the power of earnings estimate revisions. It is displayed in whole numbers -- 1 to 5.
It has been and continues to be the case that analysts employed by brokerage firms are overly optimistic with their recommendations. Because of their employers' vested interests, these analysts issue more favorable ratings than their research would support, misguiding investors far more often than helping them.
In contrast, the Zacks Rank is driven by earnings estimate revisions. And near-term stock price movements are strongly correlated with trends in earnings estimate revisions, according to empirical research.
In addition, the different Zacks Rank grades are applied proportionately to all stocks for which brokerage analysts provide current-year earnings estimates. In other words, this tool always maintains a balance among its five ranks.
Another key difference between the ABR and Zacks Rank is freshness. The ABR is not necessarily up-to-date when you look at it. But, since brokerage analysts keep revising their earnings estimates to account for a company's changing business trends, and their actions get reflected in the Zacks Rank quickly enough, it is always timely in indicating future price movements.
Should You Invest in AAPL?In terms of earnings estimate revisions for Apple, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has remained unchanged over the past month at $8.74.
Analysts' steady views regarding the company's earnings prospects, as indicated by an unchanged consensus estimate, could be a legitimate reason for the stock to perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for Apple. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
It may therefore be prudent to be a little cautious with the Buy-equivalent ABR for Apple.
For new and old investors, taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals. Zacks Premium provides lots of different ways to do both.
The research service features daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, all of which will help you become a smarter, more confident investor.
Zacks Premium also includes the Zacks Style Scores.
What are the Zacks Style Scores? Developed alongside the Zacks Rank, the Zacks Style Scores are a group of complementary indicators that help investors pick stocks with the best chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.
Each stock is assigned a rating of A, B, C, D, or F based on their value, growth, and momentum characteristics. Just like in school, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on -- that means the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.
The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:
Value ScoreFor value investors, it's all about finding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value before the broader market catches on. The Value Style Score utilizes ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to help pick out the most attractive and discounted stocks.
Growth ScoreWhile good value is important, growth investors are more focused on a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score takes projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow into account to uncover stocks that will see long-term, sustainable growth.
Momentum ScoreMomentum traders and investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." This investing style is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook. Employing factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, the Momentum Style Score can indicate favorable times to build a position in high-momentum stocks.
VGM ScoreIf you want a combination of all three Style Scores, then the VGM Score will be your friend. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, helping you find the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum. It's also one of the best indicators to use with the Zacks Rank.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank, which is a proprietary stock-rating model, employs earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to make building a winning portfolio easier.
Investors can count on the Zacks Rank's success, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988, more than double the S&P 500's performance. But the model rates a large number of stocks, and there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
But it can feel overwhelming to pick the right stocks for you and your investing goals with over 800 top-rated stocks to choose from.
That's where the Style Scores come in.
You want to make sure you're buying stocks with the highest likelihood of success, and to do that, you'll need to pick stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B. If you like a stock that only has a #3 (Hold) rank, it should also have Scores of A or B to guarantee as much upside potential as possible.
Since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank, the direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy.
For instance, a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one that boasts Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings forecast, and a much greater likelihood its share price will decline as well.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: Apple (AAPL - Free Report) Apple’s business primarily runs around its flagship iPhone. The Services portfolio that includes revenues from cloud services, App store, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Pay, and licensing and other services now contributes a significant part of revenues.
AAPL is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.
Additionally, the company could be a top pick for growth investors. AAPL has a Growth Style Score of B, forecasting year-over-year earnings growth of 17.2% for the current fiscal year.
For fiscal 2026, three analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.03 to $8.74 per share. AAPL boasts an average earnings surprise of +7.3%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Growth and VGM Style Scores, AAPL should be on investors' short list.
Apple’s recent price increases could be a harbinger for a years-long era of costlier electronics.
That’s according to a report Wednesday (July 1) from Kiplinger, which says a memory crunch it had warned of in March has only made smartphones and PCs more expensive.
The largest shift in the consumer electronics market so far, the report said, has come from Apple’s recent price hikes. The tech giant has raised prices on laptops and tablets between 17% and 30% this year, with higher iPhone prices likely for this year as well.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has blamed the increases on surging memory chip costs, saying he’s never witnessed anything like it in 40 years, the report added.
“We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” Cook told the Wall Street Journal last month.
The company’s most recent price increase came last week, with the cost of Macs increasing between 15% and 20%, and iPads climbing 15% to 25%, thanks to the skyrocketing costs of components used to power these devices.
“Tight memory supply, due to immense AI infrastructure demand, has pushed prices 3-4 times higher than they were at the end of 2024, with further rises likely,” William Kerwin, an analyst at Morningstar, wrote in a recent research note, per Kiplinger.
“Memory has accounted for about 10% of an iPhone’s cost, but inflation threatens to raise the cost of building an iPhone by 20% or more.”
The report notes that AI infrastructure is monopolizing the manufacturing capacity at memory chip makers, leaving much less capacity for consumer electronics. And AI will receive priority treatment over consumer products as new manufacturing capacity comes online.
It’s also not clear when the memory price hikes will end, the report added, citing a recent article from IDC analyst Soo Kyoum Kim.
“The supply-demand imbalance is expected to persist beyond 2027 in key segments,” Kim wrote, while Kerwin projected that memory inflation would “continue through 2028.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reported in early May that computers and electronics orders saw their best month in 25 years during March, a trend attributable to rise to soaring demand for these products as companies invest in AI.
Shares of Apple Inc NASDAQ: AAPL are trading around $285 this week, down almost 10% from the all-time highs they hit earlier this month. A string of unhelpful headlines has weighed on sentiment, from the underwhelming Siri AI reveal at WWDC to last week's price hikes on MacBooks and iPads.
Apple Today
$292.98 +3.62 (+1.25%)
As of 10:28 AM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$201.50▼
$317.40Dividend Yield0.37%
P/E Ratio35.36
Price Target$314.85
The latest update is more interesting than the market has so far given it credit for. It was reported last week that Apple has launched a lobbying campaign to secure clearance from the U.S. administration to procure memory chips from CXMT, a Chinese company currently on the Pentagon's 1260H list. For context, that's the U.S. government's official register of businesses operating in the country that are believed to have ties to the Chinese military.
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While the headline reads as another piece of complicated news for a stock that's had plenty of it, the underlying signal is potentially more constructive.
Apple is clearly moving with speed to address the cost pressure that's been weighing on it, even if the path is far from straightforward.
Why Apple Is Lobbying for Chinese MemoryThe overall context here is important. Memory chip prices have been surging globally, driven by the same AI-related demand that's been powering rallies in stocks across the board. For Apple, the impact is direct, with CEO Tim Cook publicly admitting last week that the cost pressure had become "unsustainable" and that "price increases are unavoidable." That admission was followed swiftly by price hikes across many of its core products, including its MacBook and iPad ranges, and the stock had its worst day in over a year as a result.
The lobbying campaign now reported is an attempt to ease that exact pressure. CXMT is one of the largest memory chipmakers in China, and securing access to its output could go a long way to offset some of the supply-side bottleneck Apple is facing.
The complication is that CXMT was added to the Pentagon's 1260H list this month, due to its alleged links to the Chinese military. While Apple isn’t explicitly barred from buying from these firms, dealing with companies on that list carries reputational risks and has the whiff of desperation about it.
What Wedbush Is SayingFrom that viewpoint, it’s understandable that Wedbush has cautioned that any benefit from this lobbying effort may be limited, at least in the short term. Apple tried something similar with a Chinese competitor of CXMT, YMTC, back in 2022 and faced significant pushback from Congress. There's every chance the same resistance could repeat itself this time around.
The bigger problem, according to Wedbush, is that the underlying issue isn't really about access. It's about capacity. As they pointed out in a note to clients on the news, "there is simply not enough production capability to support current memory demand."
In other words, even if Apple succeeds in unlocking access to CXMT's output, it won’t fundamentally change the tightening supply-and-demand dynamic that's been driving prices higher. That's a fair caution, and it's worth weighing carefully before getting carried away with the bullish framing.
Why the Market May Still Be Missing the Bigger PictureThat said, focusing purely on the near-term economics may be missing the more important strategic signal. Apple is one of the most capable supply chain operators on earth, and the fact that it's actively lobbying the administration to expand its options speaks to a company that isn't simply sitting back and absorbing this cost squeeze. It's moving aggressively on multiple fronts to find a way through.
This needs to be viewed in the broader context of the strategic moves Apple has been making in recent weeks. The partnership with Intel Corp NASDAQ: INTC on domestic chip production, the deeper push into U.S. manufacturing, and now the lobbying effort on Chinese memory all point to the same underlying story.
Apple is acting to diversify its supply chain in every direction it can, and strategic agility has historically been one of its biggest competitive advantages. For investors, the path to success from this China play may not be smooth, but the direction of travel is reassuring.
A Stock Setup That's Becoming Hard to IgnoreThe combination of all this with Apple's recent pullback makes the current setup interesting. The stock is now meaningfully cheaper than it was at the start of the month. Still, the long-term story, anchored by AI agentic potential, ecosystem stickiness, and a deepening Services revenue mix, hasn't actually changed.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) Price Chart for Wednesday, July, 1, 2026
For investors looking through the noise and asking whether Apple’s trajectory is meaningfully different today than it was a few weeks ago, the answer is, increasingly, that it isn't. The recent headlines might be telling investors to be careful, but the underlying picture is quietly telling them something rather different.
Should You Invest $1,000 in Apple Right Now?Before you consider Apple, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Apple wasn't on the list.
While Apple currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
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Looking for the next FAANG stock before everyone has heard about it? Click the link to see which stocks MarketBeat analysts think might become the next trillion dollar tech company.
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday (June 30) to hear Apple’s appeal of a lower court ruling that found the company in contempt in its legal battle with Epic Games, Reuters reported Tuesday (June 30).
The ruling that Apple was in contempt came because the judge found that the company violated a judicial order requiring it to make extensive changes to its app store after Epic Games brought an antitrust action against the company, according to the report.
PYMNTS reported in April that the court battle began in 2020 over whether Epic Games could add external payments in its app, enabling the company to bypass the fees charged by Apple’s App Store.
According to the Tuesday report, Apple has argued that it cannot be held in contempt for violating the “spirit” of a court injunction, as opposed to an express provision, and the company has denied that it violated any earlier court orders.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case during its term that begins in October, per the report.
Ars Technica reported Tuesday that when announcing it would hear the appeal, the Supreme Court said it would consider “whether a court may hold a party in civil contempt based on a violation of an injunction’s ‘spirit’ where the injunction is silent as to the conduct upon which contempt is based, as the Ninth Circuit holds; or, instead, whether a court must ground a finding of civil contempt on the violation of an order that clearly and unambiguously proscribes the precise conduct at issue, as other circuits hold.”
Apple told Reuters: “This is an important question of law, and we are pleased the Supreme Court will hear our case.”
Epic Games said in a Tuesday post on X: “We’re heading to the Supreme Court where we’ll continue our fight against junk fees Apple charges on third-party payments. Lower courts have rightly found Apple’s fees to be illegal and anticompetitive and we’ll continue to defend free markets.”
HomeEconomy & PoliticsWashington WatchWashington WatchThe president’s new annual filing is nearly four times as lengthy as last year’s disclosure and shows crypto income in the hundreds of millionsJune 30, 2026, 6:48 p.m. ET
President Donald Trump speaks Monday in the Oval Office. Photo: AFP/Getty ImagesThe U.S. government on Tuesday released President Donald Trump’s annual financial disclosure, showing vast and expanding holdings in stocks, real estate in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of income from cryptocurrency ventures.
The 927-page disclosure is nearly four times as lengthy as the prior year’s annual filing, which covered 234 pages. Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
About the Author
Victor Reklaitis is a Washington Correspondent for MarketWatch. During his time at MarketWatch, he also has served in roles in the London and New York newsrooms. Prior to joining MarketWatch, he worked at Investor’s Business Daily and for newspapers in Virginia.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock was up more than 2% on Tuesday as investors rotated back into large-cap technology stocks during a risk-on trading session. The Nasdaq gained 1.46%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.69%.
The rebound follows a sharp selloff last Thursday, when Apple shares fell more than 6%, marking their steepest one-day decline since April 2025.
The drop came after the company raised prices on its Mac and iPad lineup, prompting investors to assess whether Apple can pass higher component costs on to consumers ahead of any potential iPhone price increases.
The stock remains in focus as investors weigh rising memory costs, the possibility of higher iPhone prices, and Apple’s efforts to expand its supply chain by working with Chinese memory manufacturers.
Apple Seeks Relief From Memory CostsApple is again asking the administration for more flexibility to work with Chinese memory suppliers as it deals with a severe component cost and supply crunch, CNBC reported Saturday.
The effort is part of a broader push by U.S. technology companies seeking clearance from the White House, the Commerce Department, and the Pentagon to qualify Chinese vendors without violating U.S. restrictions.
Chinese memory suppliers could help Apple lower costs and gain more leverage with existing suppliers, according to the report. Apple may use those chips in devices sold outside the U.S., especially in China and parts of Asia.
However, adding a new supplier could take months of testing, security checks, and factory reviews.
Analysts See Apple Managing The PressureWedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told CNBC on Friday that Apple had to raise prices to protect margins amid sharply rising memory costs across the technology supply chain.
Ives said Apple waited as long as possible and made the move at the right time as it enters what he expects to be a major three-year hardware cycle. He expects only limited demand weakness, possibly around 1% to 2% churn on some high-end products.
Albion Financial Group CIO Jason Ware told CNBC Saturday that investors should continue to own Apple despite recent price hikes and stock weakness.
Ware said Apple has a strong long-term setup, supported by upper-single-digit revenue growth, margin expansion, and a large share buyback program.
He said Apple’s affluent customer base remains willing to upgrade, while pricing power should help protect margins without causing major demand weakness.
Ware also pointed to a possible foldable iPhone launch this fall as a driver of upgrades.
Analysts maintain a consensus Buy rating with an average price forecast of $324.16. Recent research includes Evercore ISI reiterating an Outperform rating with a $365 price forecast, KGI Securities downgrading the stock to Hold with a $315 forecast, and Bank of America Securities maintaining a Buy rating with a $380 price forecast.
Technical Picture Remains ConstructiveApple continues to trade above its long-term trend indicators. The stock is about 4.3% above its 100-day simple moving average and 6.8% above its 200-day simple moving average, keeping its broader uptrend intact.
However, the shares remain 2.5% below the 20-day SMA and 1.3% below the 50-day SMA. That suggests the stock is still working through a short-term consolidation.
The relative strength index stands at 46.05, indicating neutral momentum. The reading suggests buyers and sellers remain balanced rather than signaling a decisive breakout.
Key resistance sits near $302.50, while support is around $287.50.
Price ActionAAPL Stock Price Activity: Apple shares were up 2.32% at $288.27 at the time of publication on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Image via Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
The market has been bearish on tech giant Apple (AAPL +2.06%) of late as concerns are rising that its growth rate and margins may come under pressure in its upcoming quarters. The reason? The company is raising prices on its popular products in response to soaring memory prices, as companies such as Micron Technology benefit from insatiable demand.
While Micron is a big winner from such a trend, Apple may end up losing big from it. While the price increases can help it offset the rising memory costs, the risk is that its already expensive products may become even more unaffordable for consumers.
Does this spell trouble for Apple's stock, and is it better to ditch it now, or does its reduced value make it a more attractive long-term buy?
Image source: Getty Images.
Is Apple in a bad spot right now? Apple CEO Tim Cook has been raising the alarm over rising costs. MacBook and iPad prices are rising, in some cases by hundreds of dollars, to offset rising costs. What's troubling is that this may not be the end. The company says "the consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge" and that "we have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly."
It's a bit surprising to see such a panic, especially given that Apple's margins have been fairly strong in recent years.
AAPL Gross Profit Margin (Quarterly) data by YCharts
The big question going into the company's next quarterly earnings report will be just how much of a dent there will be in its margins. The gravity of the company's statements suggests they will be significant. What's even more concerning is that the shortage in memory products isn't ending anytime soon, and thus, costs may continue to rise for Apple; this is not an isolated event that will only impact a single quarter. And if the company has to raise iPhone prices as well, that could devastate demand for its flagship products.
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Apple stock is down, but is it worth buying? Shares of Apple have fallen by around 10% in just the past month, which, for the tech giant, is a fairly big decline. Overall, however, it's still up around 4% since the start of the year. Investors have been bearish on the stock, but with its price-to-earnings multiple still fairly high at 34, it hasn't exactly become a bargain buy.
I'd hold off on making a decision on Apple until after it reports its latest earnings numbers, to see just how much rising memory prices have impacted its margins. If the effect is truly as bad as what management has suggested, there could be more downward pressure on the stock in the future. At this stage, however, I don't think its value is low enough to compensate for the potential risk and uncertainty ahead; I wouldn't rush to buy it right now.
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock could be entering one of its strongest seasonal periods of the year, according to historical trading data.
With shares currently trading at $281, more than 10% below their all-time high near $317, investors looking for a potential entry point may find July particularly attractive, according to seasonality trends shared by charting platform TrendSpider in an X post on June 30.
In this line, seasonality data covering the last 15 years shows that July has been Apple’s best-performing month.
AAPL has posted positive returns in roughly 89% of July trading periods, while the stock’s average gain during the month stands at about 9%, significantly outperforming its historical monthly averages.
Apple seasonality chart. Source: TrendSpider The 15-year seasonality chart shows July recording the highest average monthly return of any month.
Positive performance has occurred in nearly nine out of every 10 July periods, making it one of the most reliable seasonal trends among large-cap technology stocks.
The timing is notable because Apple stock has recently pulled back amid broader technology-sector volatility, concerns over artificial intelligence execution, and rising memory component costs
The seasonal setup comes as Apple continues to post strong growth. In its latest quarter, revenue rose 17% year-over-year to $111.2 billion, while earnings per share increased 22% to $2.01.
iPhone revenue reached about $57 billion, driven by strong demand for the iPhone 17 lineup, while Services generated roughly $30 billion in revenue with margins above 75% and more than 1 billion paid subscriptions.
Impact of Apple AI strategy on AAPL stock At the same time, Apple’s AI strategy is another potential catalyst. Through Apple Intelligence, the company is integrating AI across its ecosystem with a focus on on-device processing and software-hardware integration.
The June WWDC 2026 announcements highlighted further AI enhancements, including upcoming Siri upgrades.
If successful, these features could drive device upgrades and boost Services engagement across Apple’s installed base of approximately 2.5 billion active devices.
At the same time, Wall Street analysts remain broadly constructive on AAPL stock. Consensus estimates place the average 12-month price target around $315, implying potential upside from current trading levels.
More bullish forecasts project shares could climb toward $350 or higher if AI initiatives gain traction and services growth remains strong.
Apple’s upcoming earnings report, expected around July 30, could also serve as a key catalyst, particularly if management maintains guidance for double-digit revenue growth.
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I had been a professional trader for nearly 15 years before I fell into trading options seriously. After a decade and half of a constant, high-stakes grind, I sold my stake in a successful trading firm and decided to take a year off from trading to recharge.
It was during that year that I became close friends with a neighbor of mine. He was a market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). He gave me a behind the scenes look at his operations — along with his trading statements — and I was blown away.
Despite all of my experience, I realized then there was a whole world of trading I hadn’t tapped into — options trading. I spent months managing his book for free, and after I got my sea legs, I decided to set out on my journey to become a market maker myself.
What drew me to options — and what keeps me coming back even after all these years — is their incredible versatility. Unlike stocks, options allow you to express a range of opinions about a stock’s future. Will it rise? Fall? Stay flat? With options, you can craft strategies to profit no matter the scenario.
This flexibility is why I now consider options the ultimate trading vehicle. They offer the perfect balance of leverage and risk management, which makes them the perfect instrument for traders to use their experience and creativity to find setups with truly explosive potential.
Options Provide Flexibility
With options, we’re not limited to simply buying or selling shares at the current stock price. Options traders have the ability to express their opinions on a specific company, fund, or commodity in a variety of ways. Not only can we choose directionality with calls and puts, but we can also choose what price levels we want to target…
If we think Apple Inc. (AAPL) is going to $250, we can buy the $250 out-of-the-money calls instead of buying the at-the-money $225 calls, getting our portfolio leveraged exposure to the rise in share price — usually at a fraction of the cost.
The downside, of course, is that there’s no guarantee Apple will go up, let alone approach that $250 mark before our options expire. If an option expires out of the money (OTM), its value drops to zero and we lose our initial investment. That might sound scary, but it’s also one of the reasons options are such a powerful tool when used strategically.
Unlike buying the stock outright, where a drop in price could wipe out a significant portion of your portfolio, with options your maximum loss is capped at the initial premium you paid. This built-in risk limitation is a safety net available to traders that far too many overlook.
Even better, options offer flexibility that allows us to adapt our trades to changing market conditions.
If we’re holding that $250 call and Apple starts moving in the right direction, but stalls around $240, we’re not stuck watching our trade decay into a loss… Instead, we can take action and transform that single call into a vertical spread by selling a higher strike call, say at $260. Doing this brings in premium that reduces our initial cost, lowers our breakeven point, and keeps the trade alive with a more defined risk and reward.
Let’s break that down a little…
What Is a Vertical Spread?
Simply put, vertical spreads are positions that require us to buy and sell options of the same type and expiration date at different strike prices. When we say “vertical,” we’re referring to the position of the strike prices – essentially, one position offsets the other, which defines whether it’s a credit or debit spread.
Here’s a simple rule of thumb… Bullish vertical spreads increase in value when the underlying asset rises. Conversely, bearish vertical spreads profit from a decline in price.
Going a little deeper, a bullish vertical spread would require us to buy a bullish call spread and a bullish put spread. We simply buy the option with the lower strike price and sell the option with the higher strike price.
A bearish vertical spread requires us to use bearish call spreads or bearish put spreads. We then sell the option with the lower strike price and buy the option with the higher strike price.
In both scenarios, we need to understand the role of debits and credits.
Debit, Credit, and Implied Volatility in Vertical Spreads
A credit is simplymoney received in an account. A credit transaction is one in which the net sale proceeds are larger than the net buy proceeds (cost), thereby bringing money into the account.
On the other side, a debit is an expense, or money paid out from an account. A debit transaction is one in which the net cost is greater than the net sale proceeds.
If we think about the examples above, the bullish call spread actually produces a net debit while the bullish put spread results in a net credit at the outset.
When we talk about debits and credits, we’re specifically paying attention to how volatility affects the overall trajectory of our trades. In this sense, we must always be aware of how Implied Volatility (IV) affects our overall thesis. This is a measurement of how much the price of an option’s underlying stock is expected to fluctuate over the life of the options contract (non-directional).
Now that we have some terms in mind for understanding how vertical spreads work, let’s take a high-level look at the different types of vertical spreads…
The Types of Vertical Spreads
Long Call Spread (Bull Call Spread): This is a bullish, defined-risk strategy where we trade a long and short call on the same underlying asset within the same expiration date at different strikes. The short call strike is higher than the long call strike. This places a ceiling on our profit potential in the long call while covering the overall risk and cost of the position. You’ll capture a maximum profit if the market price is at or above the short call strike price at expiry. Your maximum loss would occur if the underlying price is at or below the long call strike price.
Short Call Spread (Bear Call Spread): This vertical spread is a bearish, defined-risk strategy where we trade a short and long call at different strikes using the same expiration. Both strikes are out of the money (OTM), with the short strike being closer to the stock price. If the position expires worthless and OTM at expiration, your maximum profit potential is the credit received upfront, which is capped at the net premium you collected. Your maximum loss would be the value equal to or above the long call’s strike price. Losses are essentially limited to the difference between the call strikes, minus the net premium collected upfront.
Long Put Spread (Bear Put Spread): This is a bearish, defined-risk strategy made up of a short and long put at different strikes using the same expiry. The strike price of the long put is higher than the short put. The value of a long put vertical spread increases when there’s a drop in the price of the underlying asset. You’d capture the maximum profit potential if the market price at expiration is at or below the short put’s strike price. You’d capture your largest possible loss if it’s equal to or above the long put’s strike price.
Short Put Spread (Bull Put Spread): This is a bullish, defined-risk strategy where we trade a long and short put at different strikes using the same expiry. The strike price of the short put is higher than the long put. This means the value of a short put vertical spread will decrease when there’s a rise in the price of the underlying asset. You’d capture the highest possible profit if the market price at expiration is at or above the short put’s strike price. You’d take the biggest possible loss if it’s equal to or below the long put’s strike price.
The Power of Rolling Into Spreads
With vertical spreads, we have the power to target our upside and downside exposure without risking all of the capital we’ve put up on a single trade.
Many of our positions make use of these kinds of spreads in particular not only because they limit our risk… They also provide us different options for trade management based on whatever the markets throw at us. That’s what’s truly powerful about these trades – they allow us to stay nimble and adapt to wherever our chosen stock is heading.
Define Your Maximum Investment and Risk: Vertical spreads allow us to define and manage the maximum we can possibly lose on any position. Let’s say you’re holding a call option on Apple, and the stock has risen significantly. Instead of simply selling, consider rolling into a vertical spread by selling another call at a higher strike price. Here’s why this is powerful:
How It’s Done: When AAPL rises, you can sell a higher-strike call option against your existing position. This locks in part of your gains and reduces the position’s risk, while still keeping some upside potential. Why It Works: A spread gives you extended exposure to AAPL’s potential rise but with less capital at risk. It’s a favorite approach for traders who want to stay in the game without putting all their chips on the line. Pro Tip: One of the smartest things you can do after a winning options trade is reduce your risk without giving up all your upside. That’s exactly what vertical spreads are designed to do.
By now you understand the basic mechanics of a vertical spread. But knowing how they work is only half the equation. The real advantage is knowing when to use them.
In this video, I walk through why vertical spreads have become one of the cornerstones of my options strategy. Using real trades from our own portfolio, I show how selling a higher-strike option can dramatically reduce your capital at risk, define your maximum loss, and still leave room for substantial gains if the stock keeps moving in your favor.
Rather than simply taking profits and walking away, vertical spreads allow you to stay with your best ideas while steadily shifting the odds in your favor. It’s one of the most effective ways I know to trade with discipline over the long run.
Vertical spreads are just one tool in the toolbox. The real edge comes from understanding why we use them, when to use them, and how they fit into a complete trading plan.
That’s exactly what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge is designed to teach.
I’ll take you step by step through the same process I use every day—finding opportunities, structuring trades with defined risk, managing winners, and protecting your capital along the way. No hype. No guesswork. Just a practical framework you can apply to every trade you make.
If you’re serious about becoming a better options trader, join me inside the Masters in Trading Options Challenge. I think you’ll be surprised how quickly these concepts begin to click—and how much more confident you’ll feel every time you place a trade.
When it comes to the top artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, it seems like investors pay less attention to Apple (AAPL +1.59%) than in prior years. Even after its founder and main innovator, Steve Jobs, passed away in 2011, its products remained popular for some years, and the stock became the primary holding of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway during that time.
Today, Apple remains Berkshire's largest holding, but it now makes up less than 20% of its portfolio, down from a peak of close to 50%. Although it may not be a sell for most investors, the stock is not looking like much of a buy in today's environment, and three reasons likely explain why.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Rising memory costs One recent development that alarmed Apple investors was a sudden price increase in its MacBook and iPad products. Memory companies like Micron Technology benefit from unprecedented demand for their high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Hence, they have considerable pricing power, at least for now.
Apple admitted that the rising price of memory chips prompted the higher product prices, and its stock fell by 6% on June 25 following the news. Interestingly, this news did not include the iPhone, the product that makes up the majority of Apple's revenue. Nonetheless, its iPhone has benefited from an upgrade cycle in recent quarters, which has led to a renewed interest in Apple stock.
Such price hikes may lead to speculation as to whether that cycle will continue. That theory may or may not become reality, but it brings a level of uncertainty that can dampen optimism in Apple stock.
2. Lack of AI leadership When it comes to AI innovation, Apple rarely comes up in discussions. Interestingly, the business model that once built Apple's leadership may have hampered its AI development.
For one, its strict privacy laws prevent the use of its data for developing large language models (LLMs). That may partially explain why Siri AI is not impressing investors. Furthermore, the use of AI agents seems to have made many apps irrelevant. That is a threat to the commissions (which are as high as 30%) collected by its App Store.
Additionally, Apple recently partnered with Alphabet to power Apple Intelligence features. Knowing this, one has to wonder whether Apple has simply given up on its in-house AI.
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3. Valuation Such news might lead to the perception that Apple should trade like a value stock. Unfortunately, investors will find no such bargain. Today, its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 34. That may seem difficult to justify, considering that Alphabet, the company now powering much of its AI, trades at 26 times earnings.
Ironically, Apple stock rarely traded above a 20 P/E ratio in the second half of the 2010s, the time when Buffett took a heavy interest in Apple and dramatically increased Berkshire's stake in the tech giant.
Indeed, Apple is not as overvalued as some AI stocks. Still, given that Apple's P/E ratio makes it the most expensive "Magnificent Seven" stock next to Tesla, its earnings multiple seems to make little sense in today's market.
Moving forward with Apple stock Despite its challenges, Apple stock is likely not a sell. However, investors should think twice before buying the tech stock in today's market environment. For one, the unprecedented demand for memory chips has forced Apple to increase prices, something that could undermine the upgrade cycle that has benefited the company in recent months.
Moreover, Apple's contract with Google Gemini shows that it is less likely to become a leader in AI. Under such conditions, investors should be reluctant to pay 34 times earnings for Apple stock when the stock of AI leaders like Alphabet is significantly cheaper.
Ultimately, until the above conditions improve, investors should probably refrain from adding more Apple shares.
I keep hitting the buy button on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), and July is the month I am leaning in hardest. The pullback over the last month gave me the entry I wanted, and the catalyst I have been waiting on lands on the calendar in roughly four weeks. This is the position I have been adding to all year, and I am not done.
What pulls me back to the buy button is simple. Apple sells a device that 2.5 billion people refuse to put down, then rents them software, storage, music, and payments for the rest of their lives. The hardware locks them in. The Services business prints the rent. That is the entire thesis in two sentences, and every quarter the data hardens it.
The three reasons I keep buying First, the earnings cadence. Apple has now posted eight consecutive quarters of EPS beats, with the most recent quarter delivering $2.01 against a $1.94 consensus. Revenue came in at $111.18 billion, up 16.6% year over year, with double-digit growth across every geographic segment. iPhone revenue alone hit $56.99 billion on what Tim Cook described as “extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup“. That is operational consistency I will pay up for.
Second, the Services flywheel. Services revenue reached $30.98 billion last quarter, growing 16.1% year over year, sitting on top of a gross profit of $54.78 billion and an operating margin north of 32%. Return on equity sits at 171.4% and return on invested capital at 53.3%. Those are utility-grade recurring revenues attached to luxury-grade margins.
Third, the capital return. The board approved a fresh $100 billion buyback authorization and lifted the dividend 4% to $0.27 per share. In fiscal 2025 alone, Apple repurchased $90.71 billion of its own stock. Every quarter I hold, my slice of the pie gets bigger without me lifting a finger.
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The risk I will not pretend away The valuation is rich. A P/E of 37 and forward P/E of 29 leave no margin for a stumble. Greater China is the other live wire. It cratered to $14.49 billion in the September 2025 quarter before snapping back to $25.53 billion in the December quarter. Tariffs, trade policy, and component sourcing out of Asia stay on my watch list every single day.
What keeps the thesis intact is the math underneath the multiple. Net income grew 19.36% last quarter, gross profit grew 22.1%, and operating cash flow in the December quarter jumped 80.14% year over year. When earnings compound faster than the multiple expands, the premium pays for itself.
Why July is the month The next earnings report drops July 30, 2026, after the close. The stock is down 8.71% over the past month to $283.78, even though shares are up 41.75% over the past year and 1,232% over the past decade. Analysts polled on Wall Street currently carry a target of $315.09, with 7 Strong Buy and 23 Buy ratings against three sells.
I am buying a business with 2.5 billion daily customers, a recurring revenue engine that prints at software margins, and a management team writing $100 billion checks to repurchase its own equity. The buy button stays active for me through July, through the report, and through every quarter after it.
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Apple has a new policy in which it has accelerated its release of security updates in response to the speed with which artificial intelligence can develop malicious hacking tools, Reuters reported Monday (June 29).
Apple (AAPL) is back in focus as Wall Street and Washington react to reports that the company is seeking clearance to buy memory chips from China's CXMT.Loop Ca
Item 1 of 2 A man walks past an Apple iPhone hoarding on a street in Mumbai, India, June 29, 2026. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
[1/2]A man walks past an Apple iPhone hoarding on a street in Mumbai, India, June 29, 2026. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesApple counts Tata as key supplier as it diversifies beyond ChinaTata breach has seen files of Apple, Tesla posted on dark webApple has been investigating the matter, Reuters has reportedSupplier list, component names of iPhone 18 Pro in leakNEW DELHI/SAN FRANCISCO, June 29 (Reuters) - Sensitive lists of components and suppliers, and photos of Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models are part of files posted on the dark web by the ransomware group that stole data from the U.S. firm's Indian supplier Tata Electronics, according to documents and a source.
The exposure threatens the carefully negotiated business of building the iPhone, which Apple assembles from a thicket of suppliers worldwide. It could also upset Apple and its relationship with Tata given most of the supplier arrangements are fiercely protected by Apple, and could also hand rivals, counterfeiters and its own vendors a view of who makes what.
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Tata, which both supplies parts and assembles iPhones as a contract manufacturer, is emerging as one of Apple's most important manufacturing partners outside China, an expansion that is a cornerstone of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push to make India an electronics manufacturing powerhouse.
Apple is reportedly on track to release its iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max in September. The leak comes at a difficult time for Apple, which last week raised iPad and MacBook prices due to soaring memory and storage chip costs, with analysts expecting Apple to increase iPhone prices in the coming months.
Reuters has previously reported the Tata Electronics leak of more than 200,000 files on the dark web by World Leaks had files with purported component design papers of older iPhones and some parts of Tesla - both Tata clients. They also included documents of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW), opens new tab and Qualcomm (QCOM.O), opens new tab, both of which make parts used in iPhones.
New documents reviewed by Reuters show there are at least six files that map many components in the iPhone 18 Pro models to the specific company that supplies them. These include details of chips on its main circuit board and parts of the battery and cameras.
Apple considers this detail sensitive and is concerned about the documents being shared on the dark web as they relate to unreleased models, according to the person familiar with the matter. The data maps suppliers to iPhone parts, which Apple does not disclose in its public database of suppliers, the person added.
In all, the documents detail hundreds of parts to be on the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models.
The records also show where Apple draws a part from several suppliers and where it relies on just a few, laying bare both its bargaining leverage and its vulnerabilities.
Spokespeople for Apple and Tata did not respond to Reuters queries.
World Leaks has previously claimed responsibility for a Nike break-in. Reuters has not verified the authenticity of the data and could not immediately reach World Leaks for comment.
News website AppleInsider first reported last week that iPhone 18 Pro documents were part of the Tata leak.
Reuters has previously reported that Apple is investigating the matter and working with Tata on long-term measures. Tata has restricted internal access to sensitive systems as it investigates the leak, and hired a global consultant to conduct a forensic audit.
DROP-TEST IMAGESSeveral of the leaked files carried Apple "confidential" watermarks and internal Apple code-names consistent with the iPhone 18 Pro generation, according to the source familiar with the matter.
Inside the folder for iPhone 18 Pro files are photographs of iPhones undergoing drop tests at one of Tata's plants, dated early 2026. They depicted a conventional slab-shaped, grey handset with a three-rear-camera setup and the Apple logo.
Reuters could not with certainty identify the model number of the phone, but the source said the photos are of iPhone 18 Pro models.
For Apple and Tata, the breach cuts at the trust underpinning their partnership. Apple's move into India rests on its newest major assembler Tata, just as the company increasingly diversifies beyond China.
The bet has fast paid off: India is on track to make 26% of the world's iPhones in 2026, up from 6% four years ago, according to Counterpoint, a research firm.
Reporting by Munsif Vengattil, Aditya Kalra, and Stephen Nellis; Editing by Nick Zieminski
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Based in Bengaluru, Munsif Vengattil leads Reuters' technology news coverage in India. He tracks themes at the intersection of tech, business, and labor. A reporter for nine years, Munsif has written extensively on India's electronics manufacturing aspirations and its tech policy space, AI and election interference, satellite internet, streaming wars, and data breaches. His stories also focus on investigating corporate strategies and revealing India-specific initiatives and challenges of the biggest of tech firms - from Apple, Facebook, and Google, to Foxconn, Samsung, and Nvidia.
Aditya Kalra is the Company News Editor for Reuters in India, overseeing business coverage and reporting stories on some of the world's biggest companies. He joined Reuters in 2008 and has in recent years written stories on challenges and strategies of a wide array of companies -- from Amazon, Google and Walmart to Xiaomi, Starbucks and Reliance. He also extensively works on deeply-reported and investigative business stories.
Apple said it is pushing forward a series of software updates that would previously have been bundled with a new version of its iOS operating system, making them available earlier than in previous cycles in response to AI-driven security concerns.
Apple (AAPL 1.31%) finds itself in a tough position. It has avoided the heavy spending associated with artificial intelligence (AI) compute build-outs. Nonetheless, the surging demand for chips from some of its "Magnificent Seven" peers has put pressure on its business. In particular, the price of memory chips has soared over the last year or so. Micron Technology just reported that prices for its DRAM memory chips climbed more than 60% from the previous quarter.
But two recent moves could help mitigate the near-term pressure of higher memory prices on Apple while benefiting patient long-term investors willing to stick with the leading smartphone maker.
Image source: Getty Images.
Apple is leaning into high memory prices While memory chip prices are soaring, Apple's latest software updates are heavily reliant on increased memory capacity for its devices. Apple rebuilt Siri using Alphabet's Gemini large language model (LLM). The new AI features demonstrated at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event earlier this month are far from cutting edge, but they take advantage of the personal information and context of your iPhone, providing unique capabilities that leading AI companies can't replicate.
Under the hood, Apple is heavily focused on keeping your private data private. That means running as many queries as possible on the iPhone itself instead of sending the prompt to a remote server for processing. Apple took pains to reduce the memory requirements for on-device AI, but there's only so much it can do while providing the most useful AI features. As a result, the upgraded Siri won't work with many older iPhones.
It might seem counterintuitive to increase memory requirements for its premier software update at a time when memory prices are so high. However, the timing could prove fortuitous for Apple. The new Siri update could help drive many owners of older devices to upgrade this fall with the next iPhone release. And that gives Apple the opportunity to raise the price on the iPhone.
Indeed, Apple just announced price increases for certain MacBook and iPad units. CEO Tim Cook suggested more price hikes could be coming in a recent interview. Apple had held back on price hikes despite increased component costs for several quarters, while its biggest competitors, including Samsung Electronics, raised prices. That may have helped fuel strong iPhone sales over the last few quarters, which are up 22% through the first six months of fiscal 2026.
A price hike will allow Apple to maintain most of its gross margin, while the demand driven by the Siri upgrade should help maintain unit sales. The result should be modest revenue growth with slightly slower profit growth in fiscal 2027, but the long-term potential of the two moves could be significant.
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Thinking long term It's important to note that the memory chip market is extremely cyclical. In times of high demand, prices for memory chips climb considerably higher. However, memory chipmakers eventually add capacity, bringing supply back in line with demand and ultimately leading to lower prices. That is to say, Apple won't be stuck paying the outrageously high prices the market currently demands forever.
On the other hand, consumer prices are much stickier. While Apple has introduced some low-end models to appeal to more budget-conscious consumers, it's rarely lowered the prices of its flagship devices.
As a result, Apple should be able to produce meaningful revenue growth with minimal margin compression in the near future. And while revenue growth might slow in later years, it should drive margin expansion as memory prices decline. The recent moves leverage its strong brand and its position as the leading smartphone manufacturer to maintain steady profit growth over time.
With the stock trading around 32 times forward earnings expectations, some may see it as too expensive for a relatively slow-growing business. But Apple is demonstrating its ability to deliver steady gains without significant capital expenditures, using its massive free cash flow to buy back stock and boost earnings per share. That makes it worth paying a premium price, especially for patient, long-term investors.
Bloomberg's David Gura and Romaine Bostick join Lisa Mateo and Tom Keene on "Bloomberg Money." They discuss this week's US inflation report, Apple's price hike, and the future of social security.
Shares of Apple Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL have been trading around $280 recently, having given up all the gains they logged since the first week of May. The stock had been on a steady recovery toward its earlier highs of around $317, supported by a strengthening AI narrative and last week's strategic partnership with Intel Corp NASDAQ: INTC. However, the session on Thursday, June 25, disrupted the plans significantly, as the stock experienced its biggest one-day decline in over a year.
Apple Today
$280.70 -3.08 (-1.09%)
As of 10:30 AM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$199.26▼
$317.40Dividend Yield0.38%
P/E Ratio34.05
Price Target$314.85
The trigger was a long-flagged but still painful announcement of price increases across the company's MacBook and iPad ranges, in some cases by up to $300 per product. CEO Tim Cook had been telegraphing this move for some time, having previously described the cost pressure from surging memory chip prices as "unsustainable."
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Even so, seeing the hikes actually arrive in black and white was enough to send investors scrambling for the exits. With other major tech names like Microsoft Corp NASDAQ: MSFT also announcing significant hikes this week, the question is whether this is the beginning of something much bigger.
What Was Actually AnnouncedThe new price points are not insignificant. Apple's MacBook models have each seen meaningful increases, while its iPad models have also been bumped up substantially. The changes have ranged from between $100 and $300 per device, depending on the specific model. Speaking in percentage terms, these don’t make for pretty reading. Apple’s HomePod, for example, has seen its price increase by about 50% overnight.
Worryingly, Apple itself made no effort to soften the messaging. The company stated that it had "reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on several products," a statement that clearly leaves the door wide open for further increases down the line.
For investors looking for reassurance, that's exactly the opposite of what they wanted to hear, and it goes a long way to explaining why a price hike that had been previously flagged still resulted in such a sharp sell-off.
The Real Concern Is What Comes NextOverall MarketRank™97th Percentile
Analyst RatingModerate Buy
Upside/Downside10.8% Upside
Short Interest LevelHealthy
Dividend StrengthStrong
News Sentiment0.66 Insider TradingSelling Shares
Proj. Earnings Growth9.50%
See Full Analysis
Sure, the MacBook and iPad announcements are a worry in their own right, but the deeper concern for investors is what they signal about Apple's all-important iPhone lineup. Industry research suggests the higher cost of components could add roughly $200 per iPhone, and analysts are increasingly penciling in price hikes of $150 to $200 across the upcoming iPhone 18 range when it launches this autumn, with the heavier impact landing on the higher-memory Pro and Pro Max models.
That sets up a critical test for the company in the second half of the year. Either Apple passes those increased memory costs straight through to consumers and tests just how much loyalty its premium customer base really has, or it absorbs more of the hit on its own margins. Neither option is particularly attractive, and the market's brutal reaction this week suggests investors aren't entirely convinced Apple can navigate the trade-off without leaving some damage behind.
Microsoft Is Telling the Same StoryWhat makes Apple's announcement particularly worrying is that it isn't happening in isolation. On Thursday, Microsoft separately announced that Xbox prices in the US would increase by $100 to $150 per console, sending its own stock lower in the process. Two of the biggest names in tech, on the same day, telling investors that input cost pressures are now severe enough to force meaningful price hikes onto consumers, is not the kind of coincidence that gets brushed off easily.
The common thread is the surging cost of memory and storage chips, driven by relentless AI-related demand, pushing up prices across the entire semiconductor supply chain. As we covered recently, this is the same dynamic that's been driving extraordinary rallies in names like Applied Materials NASDAQ: AMAT and SanDisk NASDAQ: SNDK. The flip side of that boom is the cost pressure now landing on the world's biggest consumer hardware companies, and Apple and Microsoft are simply the first to pass that cost along formally.
So Is This the Canary, or Just Noise?The honest answer is that it's probably both. The price hikes themselves are unlikely to derail Apple's broader bull case, which still rests on a multi-year AI device cycle, a deepening Services revenue mix, and the strategic moves we've covered around US manufacturing and Intel. Those pillars remain intact, and at $280, the stock trades at a significant discount to where it was a month ago.
But the market's reaction this week is sending a clear warning that the cost environment for consumer tech has tightened sharply, and any company that can't pass through pricing or absorb margin compression is now suddenly vulnerable. For investors with a long time horizon, this dip may eventually look like another opportunity, but in the short term, the canary in the coal mine is chirping loud enough to be heard.
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Apple (AAPL) saw its shares surge in the last session with trading volume being higher than average. The latest trend in earnings estimate revisions may not translate into further price increase in the near term.
Apple’s ability to offset that squeeze is in focus after it raised prices across several Macs and iPads, including a $100 jump on the MacBook Neo (to $699) and a $200 increase on the MacBook Air 512GB (to $1,299).
Here’s what investors need to know.
Apple stock is trading at elevated levels. Where is AAPL stock headed? What Is Driving Apple’s Supply Chain Strategy?Apple is also testing how much pricing power it has as memory and storage costs surge, with reported increases spanning iPad Air 128GB from $599 to $749 and iPad Pro WiFi 256GB from $999 to $1,199. Tim Cook framed the component shock as "a hundred-year flood," after memory and storage prices reportedly quadrupled in the past three quarters.
Critical Price Levels To Watch For AAPLApple is sitting in an awkward spot on the chart: it’s trading 4.7% below its 20-day SMA and 2.5% below its 50-day SMA, but it’s still 2.9% above the 100-day SMA and 5.5% above the 200-day SMA. That mix often reads as a cooling phase inside a longer-term uptrend, especially after a run that pushed to a 52-week high in June.
MACD is the cleaner momentum lens right now: it’s below its signal line and the histogram is negative, which points to upside pressure fading versus the prior upswing. In plain terms, when MACD sits under the signal line, it suggests buyers are losing control unless momentum can rebuild and flip back in their favor.
The bigger-picture trend still has constructive structure, with the 20-day SMA above the 50-day SMA and a golden cross (50-day SMA above the 200-day SMA) that formed in September 2025. The trade-off is that short-term rebounds can be choppy while price remains under the 20-day and 50-day averages, since those levels often act like "overhead supply" after a pullback.
Key Resistance: $317.50 — near the 52-week high area, a zone where prior upside attempts have topped out Key Support: $246.00 — a prior floor that sits well below current price and can matter if the pullback deepens Apple Earnings Preview for July 2026Looking further out, the next major catalyst for the stock arrives with the July 30, 2026 (estimated) earnings report.
EPS Estimate: $1.89 (Up from $1.57 YoY) Revenue Estimate: $108.86 Billion (Up from $94.04 Billion YoY) Valuation: P/E of 34.4x (Indicates premium valuation relative to peers) Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price target of $324.16. Recent analyst moves include:
Evercore ISI Group: Outperform (Maintains Target to $365.00) (June 25) KGI Securities: Downgraded to Hold (Target $315.00) (June 22) B of A Securities: Buy (Maintains Target to $380.00) (June 18) Apple Benzinga Edge Rankings ExplainedBelow is the Benzinga Edge scorecard for Apple, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses compared to the broader market:
The Verdict: Apple’s Benzinga Edge signal reveals a quality-and-momentum-led profile with a clear premium valuation backdrop. For traders, that usually means pullbacks can stay buyable in the bigger trend, but upside follow-through may require momentum to re-accelerate and price to reclaim key moving averages.
AAPL Stock Price Activity Monday MorningAAPL Stock Price Activity: Apple shares were up 0.16% at $284.22 Monday morning, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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SummaryCompaniesAntitrust case is Apple's biggest regulatory headache in IndiaApple asks for investigation findings to be quashedCompany says it is a 'minuscule player' in IndiaIndia watchdog probe found Apple engaged in 'abusive conduct'NEW DELHI, June 29 (Reuters) - Apple has accused Indian antitrust investigators of "copy-pasting" its rivals' claims and failing to properly conduct its own investigation in concluding the U.S. tech giant breached competition laws, calling for the findings to be quashed, regulatory papers reviewed by Reuters showed.
The June 25 Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab submission, being reported for the first time, marks the sharpest escalation yet in Apple's fight with the Competition Commission of India (CCI), where Tinder-owner Match (MTCH.O), opens new tab and Indian startups are among its opponents.
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In 2024, CCI investigators privately issued a report saying Apple engaged in "abusive conduct" on the apps platform of its iOS operating system, and wrongly mandated the use of its payment system.
Apple has denied the allegations. It said in its submission that it was a "minuscule player" with an under 6% share of India's smartphone market, and the investigation conclusions were built on rivals' claims rather than on the CCI's independent analysis.
Apple said any "forced alterations to Apple's carefully designed App Store could disrupt its integrated business model," and argued against any penalties and behavioural remedies that could force it to change its approach.
"The imposition of remedies would create regulatory uncertainty and could deter investments in India's digital economy," the company added.
The CCI and its head of investigations did not respond to Reuters queries. Apple also did not respond to requests for comment.
Similar arguments by other big companies have failed to sway the CCI. In 2023, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google argued in its antitrust case that CCI's order risked stalling its growth, but the company was later forced to make changes to the way it promoted its Android system, which dominates the Indian smartphone market.
Senior officials from the CCI are due to hold a closed-door hearing with all parties in the case on July 21.
'COPY-PASTING' ALLEGATIONSIn its submission, Apple drew up tables to argue the CCI investigation team had not done its own analysis and instead indulged in "copy-pasting" many submissions from opponents in the case such as Match, Walmart's Indian payments app, PhonePe, and Indian rival Paytm.
"The DG (Director General) made no effort whatsoever to independently verify or critically assess these statements, often parroting them verbatim," Apple said.
Match, Paytm and PhonePe did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Apple also said the CCI investigation reports "blindly replicated" a graphic on worldwide consumer spending on mobile apps and games from an EU ruling against Apple in 2024, even though India faced different market conditions.
A Reuters review of footnotes of the EU order and Indian investigation report showed both referenced data from Statista, an online research website.
In 2023, Google also argued Indian investigators copied parts of a European ruling. "We have not cut, copy and pasted," CCI said at the time.
WATCHDOG SAYS APPLE STALLING CASEApple is facing antitrust challenges around the world, from Europe to the United States.
The Indian case, however, is progressing at a time when Apple faces many supply chain issues, including a data breach at its Indian contract manufacturer Tata.
The watchdog has accused Apple of stalling the case for more than two years by not submitting responses to the investigation findings and pursuing a parallel challenge to India's antitrust penalty law, which allows for potential fines of up to 10% of company turnover in the previous three years. The CCI has not said which Apple revenues might be considered but any fine could potentially run into millions of dollars.
Apple submissions show it has submitted the "relevant turnover of Apple in India" for fiscal years 2022-24 as required — typically used by the watchdog for penalty calculations.
In the submissions, Apple is also arguing officials failed to grant the tech firm "a single opportunity to record its statements and provide oral evidence" during the probe.
Google was provided several opportunities to defend itself and explain its business model during its Android case, according to the Apple submission.
"While desirable, the CCI's investigation team is under no legal obligation to give an oral hearing if it feels it has conclusive evidence," said Gautam Shahi, an Indian antitrust lawyer at Dua Associates.
"CCI's members will now decide if Apple should have been given that opportunity."
As Apple diversifies iPhone manufacturing beyond China, India is a key market — the country is set to make 26% of the world's iPhones in 2026, up from 6% four years ago, according to Counterpoint Research.
If CCI does consider penalties, Apple said mitigating factors should be considered, including its "unblemished record" and the fact that it has exported iPhones worth $51 billion from India over the past five years.
Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Kate Mayberry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Aditya Kalra is the Company News Editor for Reuters in India, overseeing business coverage and reporting stories on some of the world's biggest companies. He joined Reuters in 2008 and has in recent years written stories on challenges and strategies of a wide array of companies -- from Amazon, Google and Walmart to Xiaomi, Starbucks and Reliance. He also extensively works on deeply-reported and investigative business stories.
Apple is lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to buy memory chips from Chinese manufacturer CXMT as the artificial intelligence boom pushes up semiconductor costs and strains global supply chains, Financial Times reported on Saturday.
The move underscores how even the world's largest consumer electronics company is scrambling to secure additional sources of memory as demand from AI data centres reshapes the semiconductor market.
The report, citing six people familiar with the matter, said Apple has mounted a lobbying campaign across the White House and other parts of the administration to ease financial pressure from soaring memory chip prices, which recently forced the company to raise prices on several MacBook and iPad models.
According to the report, Apple first approached the Commerce Department more than a month ago and has since expanded its outreach to other administration officials and allies in Washington.
The company is seeking approval to source chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), one of China's leading DRAM manufacturers.
Apple is not currently prohibited from purchasing chips from CXMT or another Chinese memory producer, YMTC.
However, both companies have been placed on the Pentagon's Chinese Military Company blacklist over alleged links to the People's Liberation Army.
The Commerce Department also proposed adding CXMT to its Entity List last year, but the White House reportedly delayed the move while negotiating a trade truce with China.
People familiar with the discussions told the Financial Times that it remains unclear whether Apple will receive any assurances from the administration, particularly that CXMT will not later be added to the Entity List.
The uncertainty reflects broader tensions between Washington's national security priorities and the technology industry's growing dependence on semiconductor supply from Asia.
Last year, President Donald Trump approved Nvidia's sales of advanced H200 chips to China despite opposition from several administration officials.
Apple's lobbying efforts come after the company suffered one of its sharpest market setbacks in years following its decision to raise MacBook and iPad prices because of what it described as "unsustainable" memory costs.
The price increases erased about $263 billion from Apple's market value in a single trading session, its second-largest one-day decline.
Securing CXMT as an additional supplier would help reduce Apple's dependence on existing memory manufacturers at a time when AI infrastructure investment is absorbing a growing share of global DRAM production.
"The memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027. That is the real reason Apple is lobbying the White House to keep CXMT off the Entity List," TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a post on X.
The memory supply-demand gap will keep widening through 2027. That is the real reason Apple is lobbying the White House to keep CXMT off the Entity List.
▌Start with my latest industry checks: The pressure on Apple has shifted from soaring memory costs to a widening supply gap.…
— 郭明錤｜Ming-Chi Kuo (@mingchikuo) June 28, 2026 He added that even successful lobbying would not fully resolve the shortage.
"CXMT states in its IPO prospectus that its capacity is far below domestic demand. Given the persistent global memory imbalance, even if Apple's lobbying succeeds and it buys DRAM from CXMT, that would not materially lower costs or fill the supply gap. Still, with the imbalance widening, Apple has every reason to secure an additional source."
Kuo said Apple's approach also differs from its earlier evaluation of YMTC in 2022.
"YMTC was mainly about lowering NAND costs; CXMT is about managing DRAM supply risk," he said.
He also suggested the lobbying effort carries reputational value regardless of the outcome.
"Tim Cook is one of the few tech leaders who can still navigate both Washington and Beijing, so this is better handled before he steps down as CEO. Even if the effort goes nowhere, the media coverage can still leave the market with the impression that Apple tried but was constrained by US policy. That may help ease frustration over price hikes and longer delivery times."
On the other hand, the tech giant's reported interest represents an important endorsement of CXMT's technological progress, regardless of whether Washington ultimately approves purchases, say analysts.
Citi analysts said obtaining permission could prove difficult given the current US political climate.
However, they argued that Apple's consideration of the company as a supplier already marks a shift in how investors view the Chinese memory maker.
"Regardless of whether Apple gets the purchase approval, its consideration of CXMT as a potential supplier shifts market perception of CXMT from a domestic substitution play to a credible global No.4 DRAM maker," Citi said in a research note.
Apple (AAPL +3.37%) shocked Wall Street last week when it raised prices across most of its hardware lineup. Macs, iPads, the Apple TV, the HomePod, and the Vision Pro headset all got more expensive -- increases of about $100 to $300 (with a few high-end Macs getting even bigger increases) -- and the company tied the move to a shortage of memory chips brought on by the build-out of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
"The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage," Apple said.
Investors didn't take it well, and the stock had its worst day in more than a year.
Its most important product, however, was conspicuously missing from the list: the iPhone. Of course, so were the Apple Watch and AirPods. But the iPhone's absence from the list of products with price hikes is particularly notable. After all, the device still drives about half of Apple's revenue.
This leaves a big question for investors and consumers: Is the iPhone next? And if so, when are the increases coming?
Image source: Apple.
Why the iPhone got a pass There actually is one simple explanation as to why iPhone price increases may have been left out in this round: timing. Apple is expected to introduce new iPhone models this September, and this is a natural moment to reset pricing. Raising the price on phones already sitting on shelves, in the middle of a cycle, would be far more conspicuous than folding a higher number into a new lineup that buyers are weighing on its features anyway.
Additionally, the iPhone is also the entry point to nearly everything else Apple sells -- the services, the accessories, the next device -- so it may be the last product the company wants to disturb.
And it can afford to wait. Apple is taking on these costs from a position of unusual strength. In its fiscal second quarter (the period ended March 28, 2026), revenue rose 17% year over year to $111.2 billion, and earnings per share climbed 22% to $2.01. iPhone revenue set a March-quarter record, rising about 22%, and services reached an all-time high. Gross margin came in at a record 49.3%. A business running margins like that has room to absorb higher component costs for a while before it has to pass them along.
But the memory crisis may be getting harder to ignore. Conventional memory contract prices have soared this year -- up about 90% to 95% quarter over quarter in Q1 as supply shifts toward the high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers. And memory contract prices are expected to rise sharply in Q2, too.
How Apple could raise iPhone prices Ultimately, I think an iPhone price increase this fall looks likely. The harder question, however, is how big the price increase will be and what it will do to demand.
Given that price increases for most of its products so far have largely ranged from $100 to $300, I think it's reasonable to assume that iPhone price hikes would come in at around $100 or higher.
But how would Apple go about raising prices on the iPhone? It's complicated because Apple has a number of levers. For example, it can raise the entry storage tier or lift the Pro phones while keeping the base model steady, rather than raising the price on every model.
Estimating how it may impact demand may be even harder. Apple boasts impressive customer loyalty. But could higher prices push customers to delay iPhone upgrades longer than they otherwise would?
On the positive side, a higher price protects Apple's gross margin, but only if it doesn't suppress upgraders too much. Push too hard, and a price increase meant to defend margins can end up shrinking unit sales too much, offsetting gains from margin protection.
Today's Change
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Current Price
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So, what would iPhone price increases look like? My best guess is they occur this fall, and in a measured way -- largely concentrated on the Pro models, or tucked into versions with higher storage tiers rather than a blunt increase across the board.
With all of this said, raising prices on the iPhone isn't a given. With the stock trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of about 34, the valuation already leans on continued growth, giving the company every reason to defend its record margins. But it has just as much reason to protect the upgrade cycle that makes the iPhone its most valuable product. The new lineup is still a few months out, which leaves Apple time to decide how much of the memory squeeze its customers will end up paying for.
Last week, in an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook warned that the memory chip crunch made price increases "unavoidable." He also made what seemed like a promise: "We're willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution."
So much for that. On Thursday, Apple rammed through hefty price increases for many of its popular devices. Macs, iPads, the Vision Pro, HomePods and Apple TV products all saw price hikes ranging from 15% to over 30%. Even budget-friendly models, like the MacBook Neo and refurbished devices, weren't exempt, though iPhones and AirPods were spared for now.
Surging memory costs and tight supplies have shattered any belief that one of the most successful tech giants would shield its customers from the wrath of RAMageddon. It's a pattern that's becoming increasingly common across the consumer electronics industry.
Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung and now Apple have all blamed higher component costs -- driven largely by artificial intelligence data centers hogging all the available RAM -- to jack up price tags for everyday people.
That's not to say that chipflation isn't real. Smartphones rely on DRAM for short-term memory and NAND flash for short-term storage, both of which are also needed for data centers. As these power-hungry AI warehouses face bottlenecks processing larger, high-bandwidth workloads, chipmakers are racing to increase supply, driving prices higher across the industry.
"The unprecedented AI infrastructure growth has changed the semiconductor supply chain, driving insatiable demand," said Neil Shah, vice president of research at the global technology research firm Counterpoint. "The situation is not bound to be better, at least for the next two years."
Are Big Tech profits a mirage? After months of absorbing higher costs for memory and storage chips, which have quadrupled in price since 2025, Apple says it can no longer absorb the costs. "We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly," a company representative told CNET via email.
But with Big Tech sitting on some of the largest cash piles in history while reporting consistently strong profit margins, many loyal customers are pissed they're being made to foot the bill. Or maybe millions of Americans don't even notice because they're too busy scraping their paychecks to cover groceries, rent, insurance and utility bills, after years of tariffs and inflation.
On the surface, there's rarely been a better time to be a major technology company. The Magnificent Seven, a moniker for the most dominant companies in the stock market, includes Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla. Their massive market capitalizations have masked the otherwise decrepit state of the "regular" economy outside of Wall Street, which feels to most of us like it's running on fumes.
Chipmaker Nvidia has become the world's most valuable company, with a record-breaking valuation of $4.7 trillion. SpaceX's initial public offering, which included AI developer xAI, made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire (for a week or so, at least). AI developers such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have raised millions of dollars in investor funding on the promise that their products will change the world.
Despite not being a major player in the AI gold rush (or perhaps because the company took a more cautious approach to AI spending), Apple maintains industry-leading margins, reporting $112 billion in net income in 2025. For the second quarter of 2026, the company reported 17% revenue growth, beating investor expectations.
Except the financial narrative around AI is starting to shift. As Big Tech sheds trillions to finance ever-larger AI server farms -- and turns to debt markets to get the cash -- it's facing new skepticism. Consumers aren't seeing a clear payoff, and investors want tangible returns. AI is increasingly looking like a gigantic money pit.
Are price hikes really 'unavoidable'?Even though the silicon crunch is real, shifting the burden to consumers is a choice. If any company had the resources to ride out the chip shortage and absorb higher component costs, it's Apple. The Cupertino company's healthy profit margins have helped it weather supply chain disruptions and rocky economic waves better than others, even during the COVID downturn and the subsequent period of peak inflation.
Anshel Sag of Moor Insights told CNET that Apple is simply not impervious to global market forces. Sag said he believes the tech giant held off on price hikes as long as it could, thereby gaining a short-term competitive advantage. But now things have changed.
"We are now so deep (almost a year) into the memory shortage that all attempts to stockpile inventory or anticipate price increases have likely been exhausted, and Apple now has to raise prices," Sag said via email.
The question, then, is whether Apple could have chosen to absorb lower profit margins rather than pass those higher costs on to consumers. Within Silicon Valley, Apple is hardly struggling -- its net profit margin stands at 27%, according to Macrotrends data. That would make these price hikes more of a calculated business decision rather than an economic inevitability.
In a post on X, US Senator Bernie Sanders accused Cook of corporate greed, noting that the company spent $310 billion on stock buybacks, which artificially boost stock prices and benefit company execs and highly invested shareholders.
Corporate greed is Tim Cook, the billionaire Apple CEO, claiming that hiking prices on Apple products by over $200 is "unavoidable" after it made $112 billion in profits last year & spent $310 billion on stock buybacks.
These price hikes aren't unavoidable. They're…
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 25, 2026 Are we subsidizing the AI gold rush? Over the last year, we've seen major tech conglomerates like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon spend huge sums to build massive computer systems for AI. These hyperscalers paid top dollar to secure the available supply of components for their generative AI and large language models, or LLMs -- which then drove up prices across the rest of the tech industry.
Apple, in the meantime, deliberately sat out the massive AI infrastructure spending race. Instead of burning cash on its own AI data centers and cloud warehouses, the company is now integrating Google Gemini models to power its AI-upgraded Siri, while continuing to rely on its own Private Cloud Compute services. At its annual WWDC event earlier this month, Apple made a renewed push into AI, unveiling its overhauled Apple Intelligence offerings.
But Apple's initial restraint didn't protect it from the supply chain fallout. In last week's exclusive interview with Cook, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had lost some of its historic buying leverage with suppliers as AI companies secured market share. Now it has to catch up.
Cook, who is set to step down as CEO on Sept. 1, had also implied during the interview that the company could lean on its own cash reserves to secure memory supply, which could have shielded customers from price hikes. CNET asked Apple why it didn't end up tapping its own cash reserves, but did not get a response.
"Apple is between a rock and a hard place with this situation," Sag said. "The memory suppliers have all the leverage, and Apple's investors wouldn't let them eat the cost difference."
That leaves us, the regular folk, subsidizing soaring AI costs, even if we don't use the technology and never asked for it. For years, Apple did fine with a subpar AI virtual assistant while Google pulled ahead. And Siri's shortcomings, long a source of criticism for responses like "I'm sorry, I didn't get that," did little to dent demand for Apple products.
In fact, despite the tech industry's continued push for ubiquitous AI, the tech just isn't enough to entice consumers to switch: Only 11% of smartphone owners would upgrade for new AI features, according to a CNET survey.
Will tech ever be affordable? Even if higher input costs justified some of Apple's recent price increases, the markups go well beyond simply covering expenses. Take the entry-level MacBook Neo, marketed as an affordable option for students, which saw a $100 price jump just months after its launch, despite no meaningful improvements in hardware features or functionality.
As my colleague Matt Elliot pointed out, Apple seems to be using the widely reported memory shortage as a convenient cover to raise the Neo's price. In reality, the company exhausted its initial supply of surplus smartphone processors for its budget laptop and now faces higher production costs for new A18 Pro chips.
While the chip shortage explains some of the pressure on Apple, the company treated it like a blank check. And those massive price hikes could have consequences, including dampening buyer demand, since fewer of us can afford Apple products. Apple could also take a hit to its public image, since rising costs are likely to cement the brand's reputation as "elitist" -- though critics have made that point for years.
Plus, the unprecedented price spike could also freak out investors -- in fact, it already has. After Thursday's price increases, Apple's stock price plunged by over 6%, its worst single-day drop in over a year.
Still, the tech giant is likely to conquer these hurdles without taking a major sales hit, according to Francisco Jeronimo, vice president of client devices at IDC. "Where a price rise can push a budget Android buyer in an emerging market to delay a purchase or drop to a cheaper brand," Jeronimo said, "the typical Apple customer tends to absorb it."
In large part, that's because Apple has unique market power stemming from its loyal customer base. It's developed financial resilience from that retention and a tightly integrated ecosystem. When you own an iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods and a MacBook, abandoning one of them means disrupting your entire digital lifestyle.
And Apple knows it.
CNET's Katelyn Chedraoui and Blake Stimac contributed to this story.
Paul Meade, the Apple vice president in charge of the Vision Pro headset, is leaving the company to join OpenAI's hardware team, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Apple (AAPL +3.37%) is entering a phase where AI may not just enhance its products, it could redefine the entire upgrade cycle across its ecosystem. As Apple Intelligence spreads across devices, the line between "working" and "obsolete" becomes increasingly blurred.
Stock prices used were the market prices of June 18, 2026. The video was published on June 26, 2026.
Rick Orford has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick Orford is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link, they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
View of an Apple logo at an Apple store in Paris, France, April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Abdul Saboor/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
June 26 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab is lobbying the Trump administration for clearance to buy memory chips from ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese company the Pentagon has put on a blacklist, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
The iPhone maker has lobbied the White House for approval aimed at easing financial pressure on the company from rising memory chip prices, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.
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The White House, Apple and CXMT did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters outside business hours.
The lobbying push underscores the bind facing major U.S. technology companies as soaring memory chip costs collide with Washington's national security restrictions on Chinese chipmakers.
Apple approached the Commerce Department more than a month ago and also engaged other administration officials and allies in Washington, one person told the FT.
CXMT, China's top memory chipmaker, was designated as a Chinese military company by the Defense Department under the Biden administration. The company, among others, was approved by an interagency committee last year for addition to the Commerce Department's Entity List.
U.S. companies cannot ship goods, software and technology to companies on the list without a license, which is likely to be denied.
Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices on Thursday, saying it could no longer shield customers from soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry's data center buildout.
Reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Apple (AAPL +3.37%) can no longer wait and is announcing huge price increases.
*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of June 24, 2026. The video was published on June 26, 2026.
Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
Sam Vadas breaks down improving consumer sentiment and what it signals for the economy and markets. She also highlights rising memory prices and why Apple (AAPL) is reportedly turning to Chinese suppliers to manage costs and supply chain pressure.
Apple Inc. AAPL shares have come under pressure after the company raised prices on several MacBook and iPad models.
But some Wall Street analysts believe the pullback could present a buying opportunity as the company leverages its pricing power and loyal customer base.
Apple stock fell 6.1% on Thursday after the company announced price increases of roughly 15% to 25% on select Mac and iPad products.
The company has pointed to rising component costs, particularly for memory and storage, as demand for semiconductors used in artificial intelligence applications continues to outpace supply.
The stock recovered modestly on Friday, rising 1.95%.
However, Apple shares remain down about 8% this month and are on pace for their weakest monthly performance since December 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The recent price increases come as technology companies grapple with surging costs for memory and storage components that are increasingly required to support artificial intelligence capabilities.
Higher component costs have created margin pressures for hardware makers, prompting Apple to pass some of those costs on to consumers through higher pricing.
Investors initially reacted negatively, expressing concerns that more expensive consumer electronics could weaken demand, particularly as inflation remains elevated and consumers continue to prioritize essential spending over discretionary purchases.
However, some analysts believe Apple's customer base and ecosystem position it differently from other hardware companies.
Morgan Stanley maintained its Overweight rating and $360 price target on Apple, arguing that the company's ecosystem and financing options could help cushion any potential demand impact.
"If Apple's demand remains relatively inelastic — as history would generally indicate given the stock ecosystem lock Apple has on customers — these price hikes could drive upside to both revenue and earnings vs. our current estimates," Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring wrote on Thursday.
Analysts note that Apple has built a highly integrated ecosystem that encourages customers to continue purchasing the company's products and services.
Morgan Stanley said many consumers spread device purchases over several years through financing programs, reducing the monthly effect of higher prices.
The firm also suggested that Apple's software and hardware ecosystem makes purchasing decisions less sensitive to moderate price increases.
Nancy Tengler, chief executive officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, shares a similar view.
"Consumers will spend less on something else if they absolutely must have a Mac Pro," Tengler said in a Barron's report on Friday.
Wedbush also reiterated its bullish stance on the stock.
The firm maintained its Outperform rating and $400 price target, implying substantial upside from Thursday's closing price.
Wedbush's Dan Ives said Apple remains well-positioned to raise product prices without materially damaging demand or increasing customer churn, citing the company's growing emphasis on premium products and higher-income consumers.
The company's biggest pricing test may still lie ahead.
Apple has not raised prices on its most important product category, the iPhone.
Analysts believe future iPhone models could become more expensive as memory requirements increase to support advanced artificial intelligence features and rising component costs continue to pressure margins.
Even so, Morgan Stanley believes Apple will seek to balance profitability with maintaining demand.
"Apple prioritizes protecting gross profit dollar growth — rather than gross margins — on iPhones to limit demand elasticity on its core hardware product while also supporting installed base expansion," Woodring said.
