Bank of America: Expects Apple's quarterly revenue and EPS to slightly exceed market forecasts, reiterates "buy" rating

Bank of America Securities released a research report stating that Apple will announce its third-quarter performance ending in June, with forecasted revenue and earnings per share slightly higher than market expectations, reaching $84.5 billion and $1.35, respectively. Investors are mainly concerned about the upcoming new iPhone supporting AI functions, growth in service business revenue, performance in the Chinese market in terms of revenue and market share, and focusing on business development for the fiscal years 2025/2026. Considering the large installed base of old iPhone models, Bank of America expects pent-up demand and new AI features to help drive the product upgrade cycle, maintaining revenue forecasts for fiscal year 2025 roughly unchanged, anticipating an increase in average selling price, with corresponding upward revision of revenue forecast for fiscal year 2026 to $468.026 billion, reiterating a "buy" rating with a target price of $256. However, as AI features may be launched first in the United States, Europe and China may have to wait, so the bank has lowered its iPhone sales forecast for fiscal year 2025 by 6 million units, but raised the forecast for fiscal year 2026 by 7 million units. Currently, the annual iPhone sales forecasts for fiscal years 2024 to 2026 are 227 million, 241 million, and 257 million units, with year-on-year growth of 4%, 6%, and 7%, respectively