Apple Shares Hit Record High Following AI Announcements
Apple (AAPL) shares surged by as much as 6% on Tuesday, reaching an intraday record as investors responded positively to the company's unveiling of its new AI platform, Apple Intelligence. The announcement came during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where initial reactions had caused a dip in the stock on Monday. However, positive assessments from Wall Street analysts led to a rebound.

Apple (AAPL) shares surged by as much as 6% on Tuesday, reaching an intraday record as investors responded positively to the company's unveiling of its new AI platform, Apple Intelligence. The announcement came during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where initial reactions had caused a dip in the stock on Monday. However, positive assessments from Wall Street analysts led to a rebound.
D.A. Davidson Managing Director Gil Luria stated, "If you look at the signal away from the noise, you realize that this is unprecedented capability that Apple is going to introduce and it's going to integrate AI into everyday life." Following the event, Luria upgraded Apple from Neutral to Buy and increased his price target from $200 to $230.
On Monday, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, marking its long-anticipated entry into the generative AI space. The company announced that this platform would be integrated across its hardware and software products, including the iPhone, Mac, mail, messages, and photos. The platform will be available later this fall for the iPhone 15 Pro and for iPads and Macs running on Apple's M1 series chips and newer models.
Key features of this launch include significant updates to Siri, enabling it to, for example, parse phones for addresses sent in messages or find photos in a phone's library based on voice prompts. Additionally, Apple rolled out new software updates for its iPhone, watches, and computer products, enhancing their overall functionality and user experience.
JPMorgan Senior Analyst Samik Chatterjee commented, "Our experience with consumer surveys with prior generations of iPhone launches tells us that the hardware upgrade cycle is more driven by a collection of feature upgrades across diverse applications, which in aggregate will provide...reasons to upgrade over the next few years." He added that the release of AI features across Mac, iPads, and iPhones would likely drive an upgrade cycle across all these devices.
The announcements capped a month filled with anticipation and speculation, particularly regarding a rumored partnership with OpenAI, the operator of ChatGPT. Following a brief period where Nvidia (NVDA) surpassed it, Apple's stock has reclaimed its position as the second-most-valuable company in the world, trailing only Microsoft, with a market capitalization exceeding $3.1 trillion.
Despite a slow start to the year due to concerns over declining iPhone demand, Apple's stock has risen more than 15% in the past two months. Analysts such as Luria and Chatterjee foresee a new iPhone upgrade cycle on the horizon, driven by the introduction of AI features exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and subsequent models.
Luria noted, "As people buy new phones this holiday season, they're going to see this great functionality. They're going to show their friends and family, and the product upgrade cycle will happen over the next few months and quarters." He believes this development should serve as a key catalyst for the stock moving forward.
"The stock's been flat because there hasn't been revenue growth at Apple," Luria said. "Now, we think that this will allow Apple's overall growth to accelerate from the low single digits into the mid-, maybe even high-single digits over the next year or two. That's what can drive Apple's stock."