TLDR
- New CEO John Ternus unveiled the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable smartphone, priced at $2,000
- The iPhone 18 lineup will launch with premium models only; cheaper base models are delayed to next year
- A Siri AI update arrives in beta this month but is blocked in the EU and China
- Payden & Rygel boosted its Apple stake by 276% in Q2, making it their second-largest holding
- Analysts hold a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with an average price target of $331.53
Apple’s biggest product launch of the year arrived Thursday, and new CEO John Ternus made one thing clear: big screens matter more than AI right now.
iPhone Duo
iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max
Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4
AirPods 5… and Joz pic.twitter.com/TWj3GjDSmk
— John Ternus (@johnternus) September 9, 2026
Ternus unveiled the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable smartphone, priced at $1,999. The device features a 7.6-inch unfolded display and a 5.4-inch outer screen. Ternus said competing foldables feel like “two phones awkwardly stuck together” and positioned the Duo as something different.
AAPL opened at $315.34 on Thursday, up 16% year-to-date coming into the session. The stock has a 52-week range of $225.95 to $344.57 and a market cap of $4.60 trillion.
The iPhone 18 lineup will launch with premium-priced models only. Anyone wanting a cheaper base model will need to wait until 2027. Apple also raised iPhone 18 Pro pricing by $100 and bumped prices on older models too.
A long-awaited Siri AI update will roll out in beta this month, but it will not be available in the EU or China at launch.
Institutional Interest Picks Up
On the institutional side, Payden & Rygel increased its Apple position by 275.8% during Q2, ending the quarter with 138,310 shares worth roughly $40 million. Apple now makes up 3.1% of their portfolio and is their second-largest holding.
Other big names have been active too. Norges Bank picked up a new stake worth roughly $52.3 billion in Q4. Nuveen entered a new position worth $17.5 billion in Q1. Vanguard lifted its stake by 1.9% in Q4 and now holds 1.43 billion shares worth $387.7 billion. Overall, 67.73% of AAPL is held by institutional investors.
Apple reported $2.02 EPS last quarter, beating the $1.89 estimate by $0.13. Revenue came in at $109.42 billion, up 16.4% year over year and slightly above the $109.04 billion consensus.
What Analysts Are Saying
Analyst sentiment is mixed heading into the launch. Wedbush kept its “outperform” rating with a $400 price target. Tigress Financial maintained a “strong buy” with a $375 target. Rosenblatt raised its target from $300 to $303 but kept a “neutral” rating. Barclays held its “underweight” rating with a $245 target.
The consensus across 39 analysts sits at “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $331.53.
On the competitive front, Huawei launched its Mate XT2 tri-fold phone ahead of Apple’s event, putting pressure on the Duo before it even hits shelves.
Apple also launched AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12, and Watch Ultra 4 at Thursday’s event, rounding out a broad hardware refresh.
The iPhone 18 Pro adds a 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip, improved cameras, longer battery life, and upgraded Siri features.
Equities analysts expect Apple to post $8.74 EPS for the full year.
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