Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) is set to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Thursday after the bell, with Wedbush expecting a strong performance following the holiday season and growing investor focus on the company’s artificial intelligence strategy.
Wedbush’s Dan Ives believes the market continues to underestimate Apple’s longer-term growth prospects, calling 2026 a potential turning point for the company’s AI ambitions.
“We expect strong results after this holiday season as the Street continues to underestimate what 2026 is going to bring for Apple, as in our view, this will finally be the time that Cook & Co. dive into the deep end of the pool on its AI strategic roadmap,” Ives wrote.
Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating on Apple with a $350 price target, keeping the stock on both its Best Ideas List and IVES AI 30 List.
Ives said consensus revenue expectations of $138.4 billion for the quarter could prove conservative, citing strength in the iPhone 17 cycle and a sharper-than-expected rebound in China.
“We believe the Street’s top line estimate of $138.4 billion is beatable given the strength of iPhone 17 including a major rebound in China despite the heated competition in the region,” Ives said, calling the demand trend a “surprise tailwind” in the current iPhone supercycle.
Ives added that Apple is likely to outperform expectations for iPhone sales, pointing to a large base of users yet to upgrade.
“The iPhone 17 continues to garner interest across geographies with ~315 million of 1.5 billion iPhones not upgrading in the last four years,” he said.
Beyond hardware, Ives expects services revenue to remain a key driver, with growth supported by cloud and payment offerings.
“We also believe that the company will outperform the Street’s Services revenue expectations of mid-teens year-over-year growth through acceleration from cloud and payment services,” Ives noted.
Investors are also expected to focus closely on Apple’s AI strategy during the earnings call, particularly around plans to revamp Siri and the company’s partnership with Google.
“With the most unrivaled consumer installed base in the world of 2.4 billion iOS devices and 1.5 billion iPhones, we expect Cook and Co. to expand on the company’s AI strategy on the call,” Ives said.
The analyst said Apple’s decision to integrate Google’s Gemini technology into Siri marks a key step in its AI push, setting the stage for a broader rollout in 2026.
“Now it’s about the consumer AI revolution coming through Cupertino,” Ives wrote, adding that Apple is expected to outline a clearer blueprint for its AI roadmap ahead of a Siri refresh this spring and its annual developers conference in June.
While acknowledging execution risks, Ives said Apple’s AI potential is not yet reflected in the stock.
“We believe no ‘AI premium’ which could be worth $75–$100 per share is factored into Apple’s stock at current prices,” he said.