What you need to know
- Goldman Sachs' has finally upgraded its Apple stock rating from 'sell' to 'neutral'.
- It comes following Apple's bumper Q2 earnings posted Wednesday.
- GS says its prediction the iPhone 12 would disappoint was "clearly wrong".
Goldman Sachs' has upgraded its Apple stock rating to 'neutral' after more than a year of labeling it as 'sell' in the wake of the Cupertino Company's bumper earnings announcement Wednesday.
From Yahoo Finance:
After a blowout quarter from tech giant Apple, Goldman Sachs' long-time bearish analyst covering the stock is admitting defeat.
A note from GS analyst Rod Hall reportedly stated:
We are upgrading our rating from Sell to Neutral after Apple posted another large beat and implied a raise vs. our June revenue expectations. Our original view that the iPhone cycle would disappoint in the midst of COVID was clearly wrong. Not only has Apple done better than we expected on iPhone during the cycle but Mac and iPad have also materially outperformed our forecasts
According to the report, Hall also noted that since he added Apple to Goldman's Americas Sell List last April, the stock has climbed by 86%, outstripping the S&P 500's growth of 49% in the same period.
The report notes that Hall "consistently voiced concern on the iPhone 12 demand and whether there would be a 5G upgrade supercycle" but that the prediction had "gone south". Indeed, the iPhone 12 has proven itself to one of the best iPhones in recent memory.
Apple posted quarterly earnings of $89.58 billion over a consensus expectation of $77.3 billion, blowing even the most bullish analyst estimates completely out of the water. Revenue was driven by huge demand for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
