Bank of America resets Apple stock forecast

Apple (AAPL) banal has mislaid astir 4.6% twelvemonth to date, astatine the clip of writing, Monday afternoon, April 6, according to Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 scale (SPY) is down adjacent to 3.5% successful the aforesaid period.

And portion Apple is somewhat lagging the S&P 500, truthful are the remainder of the Magnificent 7 members.

• Microsoft (MSFT) is down astir 23%.

• Tesla (TSLA) is down 21.8%.

• Meta (META) is down 12.2%.

• Amazon (AMZN) is down 7.8%.

• Nvidia (NVDA) is down astir 5%.

• Alphabet (GOOGL) is down 4.4%.

What sets Apple isolated from the remainder of the Magnificent 7 is its AI strategy. Apple is betting that AI volition go a commodity. This stake enables Apple to support superior expenditures low.

While hyperscalers program to walk astir $700 cardinal this year, Apple’s planned capex is astir $14 billion, according to Forbes.

With little absorption connected AI, Apple has precocious launched a precise important product.

Apple launched the MacBook Neo, a laptop priced astatine $599, connected March 4.

The institution has ne'er priced its laptops truthful low, and successful fact, this laptop is cheaper than the Apple Watch Ultra 3, which starts astatine $799.

According to IMARC Group’s research, laptops priced betwixt $500 and $1,000 predominate the market. Apple's introduction into this marketplace conception signals a large shift.

The motorboat coincides with a ample fig of PCs nary longer supported, arsenic they can’t beryllium upgraded to Windows 11 and truthful request a replacement (or a power to Linux).

Here is what Jeffrey Clarke, Vice Chairman and COO of Dell, had to accidental astir this during the Q3 net telephone successful November 2025: “We person not completed the Windows 11 transition. In fact, if you were to look astatine it comparative to the erstwhile OS end-of-service, we are 10, 12 points down astatine that constituent with Windows 11 than we were [with] the erstwhile generation.”

Related: Nvidia invests $2 cardinal successful under-the-radar tech giant

“If representation serves maine right, the installed basal is astir $1.5 cardinal – 1.5 cardinal units,” helium continued. “We person astir 500 cardinal of them susceptible of moving Windows 11 that haven’t been upgraded. And we person different 500 cardinal that are 4 years aged that can’t tally Windows 11.”

Unsurprisingly, MacBook Neo sold retired fast: 9to5Mac reported that arsenic of March 20, each 8 MacBook Neo models are sold retired online until adjacent month.

Apple CEO Tim Cookposted connected X connected March 20:

“Mac conscionable had its champion motorboat week ever for first-time Mac customers. We emotion seeing the enthusiasm!”

Bank of America expert Wamsi Mohan and his squad precocious revised Apple's terms people but didn’t code the MacBook Neo launch. They present conducted a afloat investigation of however the MacBook Neo volition impact Apple stock.

Analysts noted that successful the notebook class priced betwixt $300 and $800, Apple had lone 0.6% stock successful 2025, leaving a ample accidental for marketplace stock gains with the Neo model.

The squad estimates the full addressable marketplace (TAM) for 2026 is $32 billion. They derived this estimation from notebook units priced betwixt $300 to $800 shipped successful 2025, adjusted down 10% successful 2026, and multiplied by Apple’s competitory acquisition mean selling terms of $499.

Related: History of Apple: Company timeline and facts

Mohan performed a sensitivity investigation astatine marketplace stock levels betwixt 1% to 25% and operating borderline betwixt 15% to 22% to cipher the payment to EPS. He wrote: “If Apple tin thrust 10% marketplace stock successful 2026 astatine 19% operating margins, this equates to $0.03 of incremental EPS.”

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Analysts said that they judge Neo volition thrust meaningful adoption for first-time Mac owners with a chiseled lawsuit basal comparative to the Air and Pro models. They noted that the iPhone installed basal is astir 1.5 cardinal units, acold supra the Mac installed basal of astir 260 million.

The squad believes that if Neo is palmy astatine driving adoption of first-time Mac buyers, the wide installed basal for Apple becomes stickier and tin pb to increases successful services usage implicit time.

In a probe enactment shared with TheStreet, Mohan reiterated a bargain standing for Apple banal and the terms people of $320, based connected a 32 aggregate of his estimation for EPS successful 2027 of $9.94.

• Weaker iPhone rhythm connected user spending risk;

• Weaker near-term services trajectory;

• Gross nett dollars declining YoY adjacent fewer quarters;

• iPads/Macs reverting to pre-COVID levels;

• Stronger dollar;

• Antitrust lawsuit;

• Potential commercialized conflicts, tariffs.

• Stronger income of Pro iPhone models;

• Potential caller products (AR/VR) and services;

• Stronger than expected iPhone cycle;

• Tailwinds from little representation costs;

• Faster than expected betterment successful emerging markets.

Related: Bank of America reinstates Microsoft banal coverage

This communicative was primitively published by TheStreet connected Apr 7, 2026, wherever it archetypal appeared successful the Investing section. Add TheStreet arsenic a Preferred Source by clicking here.