Apple (AAPL) – Get a free report The stock is trading near its record, hovering around $195 per share versus its closing high of $196.45, set on July 31.
The stock accelerated back past a $3 trillion market cap last week, the first time since a crash in August that Apple crossed the $3 trillion mark.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives sees room for even more upside for Apple.
Related: Wedbush's Dan Ives Says Apple's Market Cap Is About to Skyrocket
Raising his price target to $250 from $240 in a note on Sunday, Ives said an increase in iPhone sales could be a boon for the stock.
“With approximately 240 million iPhones in the window of a global upgrade opportunity now in play for the iPhone 15 and services accelerating again towards (fiscal year 2024), we see this as the golden opportunity to own from Apple over the next year,” he wrote.
Ives' assumption centers on Apple beating Wall Street expectations of between 220 million and 230 million iPhone deliveries for the year.
Ives added in a publish in X who believed that Apple would be the first company to exceed a market capitalization of 4 trillion dollars. He estimates that this move will occur at the end of 2024, “given Cupertino's pace of growth and monetization.”
The company is one of Ives' “favorite tech names.”
Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring last week raised his own Apple price target to $220 from $210, noting a reduction in near-term risks and growing enthusiasm around “cutting-edge ai” to reignite the “bullish case.”
Ives' latest update on Apple has made him the most bullish Apple analyst out there: The average analyst price target, according to TipRanks, is $202.32, with a high of $240 and a low of $150. .
In fact, not all analysts are so bullish on the stock.
Gil Luria, senior software analyst at DA Davidson, said CNBC On Monday, the updated iPhones do not feature the kind of improvements that would force a user to upgrade “before the phone breaks.”
“Making the slight incremental improvements we've seen in the iPhone won't create the kind of growth Apple stock needs to continue rising,” Luria said.
The stock, he said, is trading at a high multiple for a company that is “barely eking out growth with its current products.”
Although Apple's ecosystem, through its service offerings, is “very good,” Luria said that for the stock to continue growing, Apple needs to introduce “very compelling changes to its existing products or new products that can expand the reach of the hardware”.
Bloomberg reported on December 8 that Tang Tan, the Apple executive in charge of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, would leave the company in February.
Related: Apple Wants to Crash the ChatGPT Party – Here's Why It Might Succeed
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