Apple Gets Price Hike From Evercore on Apple Car Project
Apple (AAPL) – Get Report received a price target increase to $160 from $145 from an Evercore ISI analyst who said the tech giant’s proposed Apple Car could have the same disruptive impact as the company’s iPhone.
Shares of the Cupertino, Calif. company were up 2.63% to $142.66 in trading Monday.
Analyst Amit Daryanani, who kept an outperform rating on the shares, said in a note to investors that his near-term “bullish bias” is driven by expectations for an iPhone supercycle, the monetization of its installed base and gross margin expansion, according to the Fly.
The analyst also said that recent discussions around Apple Car “have become louder” and sees increased odds that Apple will have a product in the automotive space in the next five years.
Daryanani said the auto market will be a driver for multiple expansion given the potential for Apple to “disrupt the Automotive market much as it did the phone industry.”
“IPhone was a computer in your pocket,” he said. “Car will be a computer on wheels.”
He estimated a car could add $36 billion to Apple’s sales.
Development of an Apple Car is still in the early stages and was at least half a decade away, Bloomberg reported.
The company also is investigating building its self-driving-car system for a third-party partner rather than an Apple vehicle, Bloomberg said, citing people with knowledge of the efforts.
Earlier this month, Hyundai backed away from a statement confirming that it was in preliminary talks with Apple on developing a self-driving car, quickly shifting gears to say it has received requests from a number of technology suitors.
Apple posted more than 300 job ads last year, all in an attempt to find the necessary workforce to make the Apple Car a reality, according to GlobalData, which also noted that the company has been recruiting former Tesla (TSLA) – Get Report employees over the past few years.
Reuters reported in December that Apple was planning to produce a passenger vehicle in 2024 that has both self-driving technology and uses Apple’s own battery technology.
Apple, which is scheduled to report first-quarter results on Wednesday, received a price target increase $175 from $160 from Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives on Monday.
Raymond James analyst Chris Caso raised also raised his price target on Apple to $150 from $140 on Monday while keeping an outperform rating.
