Apple's stock rallies after Wedbush's Ives boosts price target to a Street-high $515

Shares of Apple Inc. rallied 1.2% in premarket trading Monday, after Wedbush analyst Dan Ives boosted his price target to a Street-high of $515 from $475, citing a "discernible uptick" in forecasts for the upcoming iPhone 12. He said that uptick bodes well for demand trends heading into this "super cycle" October launch. He kept his rating at outperform, while establishing a new "bull case" target of $600. Ives's price target is now the highest among the 41 analysts surveyed by FactSet, above second place $510, from First Shanghai analyst Xiao Yu Han. Ives's target is 15.9% above Friday's closing price of $444.45, and 22.1% above the FactSet average target of $421.75. "While the soft macro and COVID backdrop are weighing on near-term consumer demand trends, Apple has a "once in a decade" opportunity over the next 12-to-18 months as we estimate roughly 350 million of Cupertino's 950 million iPhones worldwide are in the window of an upgrade opportunity," Ives wrote in a note to clients. The stock has soared 51.4% year to date through Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has slipped 3.9%.

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