AAPL Stock Forecast: Will Apple’s New Strategy See Huge Gains?
AAPL Stock Forecast for 2019
In 2018, even the most powerful and reliable tech stocks struggled. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), long a dominant tech company with a sky-high market cap, impressive sales numbers, and an internationally recognized brand that was second to none even felt the burn.
But this minor setback isn’t enough to sway me off of Apple stock. My AAPL stock forecast for 2019 is that it could yield big gains in 2019 and many years after that.
First, we have to establish what happened in 2018. Like many tech stocks, Apple started out strong in 2018, with a yearly high of 40% as recent as October. But the Nasdaq crash laid many tech stocks low, and Apple was not immune.
Since then, we have seen radical declines all across the stock market, wiping out Apple stock’s gains in 2018.
AAPL stock is now sitting at a six percent loss on the year (and declining). Compared to the Nasdaq-100 index, the stock is currently being outperformed by a slim margin.
Chart courtesy of StockCharts.com
This was largely caused by the general stock market slowdown that hit in October and began hurting share prices in almost every industry, including tech.
There were also other issues for Apple, however. “iPhone” sales, which bring in most of Apple’s revenue, were stagnant in 2018. (Source: “Global Apple iPhone sales from 3rd quarter 2007 to 4th quarter 2018 (in million units),” Statista, last accessed December 19, 2018.)
Although the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report showed a 20% revenue increase compared to the prior year, the company still failed to meet expectations, and iPhone sales numbers were partly to blame.
The growth in iPhone sales has begun to slow so much, in fact, that Apple is no longer reporting its unit sales in its quarterly reports.
While this may seem like the company is making a hasty retreat and trying to cover its losses, the reality is a little more clever than that.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has long wanted to expand Apple’s business. While the company already does more than sell iPhones, the device still represents the flagship product.
With iPhone sales slowing, Cook has been trying to steer Apple in a new direction, and that could be huge for the AAPL stock forecast for 2019.
Services revenue is noted in the company’s Q4 report as having reached an all-time high of $10.0 billion. (Source: “Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results,” November 1, 2018.)
This is one of the many new areas that Apple hopes to expand into.
Instead of just being a company that sells iPhones and other gadgets, Apple is transitioning into a much more balanced business that will put a greater focus on other products and services.
This is a strategy that I believe will propel gains in the next few years. Nevertheless, there may very well be a stock market contraction in 2019—entirely independent of whatever Apple does.
Analyst Take
My AAPL stock forecast for 2019 is very positive, with the only outlier being the possibility of an overall stock market downturn.
Otherwise, I feel that Apple has a strong strategy that could pay off with substantial, long-term gains.
Furthermore, the company has largely been able to sidestep scandals in 2018, a rarity for a tech stock with a market cap of over $744.0 billion. Other companies of a similar size have faltered in one way or another during 2018.
Despite the uncertainty of the near future, buying and holding AAPL stock is still a worthwhile strategy to possibly see 40%–80% gains in the next few years.
