Wedbush reiterated its Outperform rating and $400 twelve-month price target on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), implying roughly 36% upside from the $293.08 close on 25 June, as the iPhone maker raised prices across its Mac and iPad lines in response to soaring memory and storage chip costs.
Dan Ives, who leads the Wedbush coverage, argues that Apple's grip on the higher-end consumer insulates it from churn even as the company pushes through increases of 15% to 20% on Mac hardware and 15% to 25% on iPads, with the MacBook Air up $200 to $1,299, the MacBook Pro up $300 to $1,999, and the iPad Pro up $200 to $1,199.
The analyst flags that carry-in inventory has cushioned margins in recent quarters, but CEO Tim Cook's characterisation of the memory cost environment as "unsustainable" signals that pressure has now reached a tipping point, while iPhone pricing remains unchanged for now.
Ives views Apple's recently announced Intel partnership as increasingly critical, arguing it positions the company to lock in domestic chip capacity ahead of what he describes as a multi-year AI-driven hardware cycle, supported by Apple's broader commitment of approximately $600 billion in US manufacturing investment.
