Apple's developers conference left Wall Street analysts underwhelmed. Here's what they said
Wall Street analysts remained unimpressed following Apple's annual developer conference on Monday, after the iPhone maker failed to introduce substantial artificial intelligence updates. Apple unveiled several software updates including "Liquid Glass," its first major redesign of its iPhone operating system since 2013. Still, this wasn't enough to outweigh the disappointment that Apple hasn't made as much progress on the AI front as competitors such as Google and OpenAI. The stock lost more than 1% on Monday following the announcements and were flat on Tuesday. "The new software looks very nice but isn't exactly the kind of stuff that drives the "buy orders" on the trading desk," Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes wrote. To be sure, many analysts kept their ratings and price targets unchanged. Here's what some at major shops on Wall Street had to say: Barclays keeps underweight rating and price target of $173 Analyst Tim Long's target implies about 14% downside from Monday's close. "We were not expecting much from the annual WWDC keynote, but were still slightly disappointed at the content and features announced today. We view changes to all device Operating Systems and Apple Intelligence as incremental, and not enough to drive any upgrade cycles." UBS reiterates neutral rating and $210 per share price target UBS' target calls for 4% upside. "WWDC announcements are more evolutionary than revolutionary in our view. Apple made a number of software-related announcements at its annual developer conference, marking the second year in a row where WWDC was largely software-focused and in our view unlikely to drive iPhone demand. While we believe some investors were hopeful that Apple could announce a new iPhone form factor or a 'killer' Apple Intelligence app, the updates were in-line with our more modest expectations. Therefore, we believe consensus iPhone revenue estimates over the next 4 quarters are too optimistic." Bank of America keeps buy rating, $235 per share price target Analyst Wamsi Mohan's price target is approximately 17% above Apple's closing price on Monday. "Overall, Apple is expanding its AI offering and leaning into its ecosystem and reputation for seamlessness by standardizing both tools and the OS across their products. Maintain Buy on resilient earnings, strong capital returns and optionality to monetize incremental avenues of growth." Morgan Stanley reiterates overweight rating, price target of $235 "WWDC 2025 was more akin to 'dub dub' of old, featuring a focus on OS design overhauls and product UI unification, alongside a sprinkling of AI upgrades. Sentiment is unlikely to shift until more tangible AI progress is evident, though Apple clearly still has the ingredients to make it an AI winner." Citi maintains buy rating, keeps price target at $240 Analyst Atif Malik's price target implies upside of 19% ahead. "Apple held its 2025 WWDC today with a major revamp of its software designs across Apple platforms, new operating systems, and Apple Intelligence updates. Overall, we like the new and more unified 'Liquid Glass' design across all platforms, the continued improvement on Vision Pro, the more Mac-like iPadOS and more iPhone apps on MacOS for continuity, and how Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated in apps across Apple devices, even though we acknowledge that investors focus is on the previously delayed personalized Siri update to 2026." JPMorgan keeps overweight rating and $240 per share price target "Apple's WWDC event did not include any major surprises that would convince investors around material changes to their outlook for either iPhones (or other devices) with the company marking out a set of incremental updates to its platform on different devices as well as opening up access to on-device Foundational AI models to developers — which can potentially be instrumental in driving interesting use cases/applications for consumers in time, but with limited immediate tailwinds." Goldman Sachs reiterates buy rating and $253 price target The bank's forecast corresponds to a potential upside of 26%. "AAPL traded down ~1% following the WWDC25 keynote (note: AAPL declined 2% last year after WWDC24), where the company announced design improvements and new features across its operating systems and first-party apps, but failed to demonstrate substantial progress in Apple Intelligence." Melius Research reiterates buy rating, $240 price target "WWDC25 didn't have anything groundbreaking that would change the narrative. Apple still needs to reignite confidence in its services business with new innovations (not toll-taking) and re-accelerate iPhone revenues with new designs. The next potential catalyst for Apple is likely the launch of those new iPhones in September including an 'Air' model and higher value models that could help drive category growth." — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
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