Apple Inc. (AAPL) -) shares moved higher Monday after analysts at Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on the world's most valuable tech company, citing its recent efforts to expand in India.
Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring raised his price target on Apple by $30, to $220 per share, noting that Apple's India business could be worth as much as $40 billion over the next ten years.
Apple said iPhone revenues rose 1.5% from last year to $51.33 billion over the three months ending in March, linked in part to the sale of high-end iPhone Pro models that were jammed-up over the holiday period. However, emerging market sales were also a key driver that helped offset what CFO Luca Maestri called "macroeconomic challenges.”
Apple's recent push into India, which includes the opening of its first retail stores in the Android-dominated market last month, resulted in record March quarter revenue, estimated at $6 billion. Markets in Mexico, Indonesia and the Philippines all tallied record high sales figures as Apple's installed base of devices topped 2 billion worldwide.
"Apple screens positively in our 2023 AlphaWise India Smartphone Survey, which shows market share gains, positive iPhone mix short and strong 'ecosystem effect'," Woodring wrote. "We estimate Apple India can grow 7x over the next 10 years (to $40 billion), add 170 million new users and account for 15% of revenue growth."
Apple shares were marked 1.73% higher by the close to trading Monday to end the session at $193.99 each, a move that extends the stock's year-to-date gain to around 55.1%.
Apple breached the $3 trillion mark late last month for only the second time on record, and its shares are up more than 46.7% so far this year, as megacap tech stocks continue to tighten their grip on U.S. stock performance.
Apple reached the $2 trillion threshold in August 2020, thanks in part to a surge in iPhones and Mac sales linked to the global pandemic. That was nearly two years to the day after it became the first U.S. company to breach the $1 trillion mark.
Its shares were last valued at just over $3 trillion in early January 2022, when the stock traded at $182.86, but more Apple shares were outstanding to boost its overall value.
Apple will publish its third quarter earnings on June 3, with analysts looking for a bottom line of $1.19 per share, down a penny from the same period last year. Revenues are forecast to slip 1.75% to $81.509 billion.
