TLDR
- Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives raised his Apple price target to a Street-high $350, implying ~34% upside from current levels, reiterating an Outperform rating
- Apple’s new Mac lineup — including M5-powered MacBook Air/Pro and the $599 MacBook Neo — is seen as a potential catalyst for an AI-driven upgrade cycle
- Apple beat Q1 estimates with EPS of $2.84 (vs. $2.67 expected) and revenue of $143.76 billion, up 15.7% year-over-year
- Oppenheimer Asset Management raised its AAPL stake by 9% in Q3, while major holders like Vanguard and State Street also added to their positions
- Wall Street holds a Moderate Buy consensus on AAPL with an average price target of $306.12; the stock opened Friday at $260.29
Apple (AAPL) stock is drawing fresh attention after Wedbush raised its price target to $350 — the highest on Wall Street — while institutional investors quietly added to their positions and the company posted a strong earnings quarter.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives set the new Street-high target on March 6, reiterating his Outperform rating. At current prices around $260, the target implies roughly 34% upside. Ives pointed to Apple’s expanding Mac lineup, built around its new M5 chips, as a key driver for what he sees as a coming AI-powered hardware upgrade cycle.
The new lineup includes updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with M5 chips that offer better AI performance, faster memory, and longer battery life. Apple also introduced the MacBook Neo, a 13-inch laptop starting at $599, aimed squarely at price-conscious buyers and the education market.
Apple just won the AI war
They announced the MacBook Pro M5 Max
What would have cost $40,000 to do with Nvidia chips, now costs $3,000 with a laptop
• 4x faster AI speeds
• Up to 128gb of unified memory
• Frontier intelligence on the goThe biggest complaint about Apple… pic.twitter.com/Cp6LdW4VN7
— Alex Finn (@AlexFinn) March 3, 2026
Ives noted that nearly half of current Mac buyers are new to the platform — a detail he sees as evidence that Apple is expanding its user base, not just cycling through existing customers.
Gene Munster and other analysts have argued the MacBook Neo and iPhone 17e could add incremental revenue and help Apple take ground in entry-level and education segments. Wedbush framed the broader product range, from premium AI laptops to an affordable entry model, as a way to drive “incremental upside” to Mac sales.
Earnings Beat Fuels Confidence
Apple’s most recent quarterly results, reported January 29, gave bulls more to work with. The company posted EPS of $2.84, beating the consensus estimate of $2.67 by $0.17. Revenue came in at $143.76 billion, topping expectations of $138.25 billion and rising 15.7% year-over-year.
Return on equity stood at 159.94%, with a net margin of 27.04%. Analysts now forecast full-year EPS of $7.28 for the current fiscal year.
Apple also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share on February 12, equating to a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%.
Institutional Money Keeps Moving In
Oppenheimer Asset Management raised its AAPL stake by 9% in Q3, bringing its holding to 362,318 shares valued at around $92.26 million. AAPL now represents 1.0% of Oppenheimer’s total portfolio and its 12th largest position.
Larger players also added exposure. Vanguard grew its Apple holding by 1.1% in Q2, while State Street added 0.9% to its position. Geode Capital Management increased its stake by 1.4%. Norges Bank initiated a new position in Q2 worth approximately $38.9 billion. Institutional investors collectively own 67.73% of Apple’s outstanding stock.
What the Rest of Wall Street Thinks
The broader analyst community is mostly positive but not uniformly so. JPMorgan raised its target from $315 to $325 with an Overweight rating. Scotiabank set a $330 target. Goldman Sachs and Sanford C. Bernstein both hold Buy or Outperform ratings.
MarketBeat’s aggregated data shows an average target of $297.58 with a “Moderate Buy” consensus — 22 Buy ratings, 12 Holds, and one Sell. TipRanks data puts the average at $306.12 based on 15 Buys, 9 Holds, and one Sell.
The stock opened Friday at $260.29, with a 12-month range of $169.21 to $288.62. Its 50-day moving average sits at $263.88, just above its 200-day average of $260.07.
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