Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares to Buy on Wednesday, saying the company’s privacy-focused Apple Intelligence platform could help it gain market share in the AI space.
The move comes after the investment firm conducted a survey showing that privacy is the top feature US consumers want in AI.
The survey, which had over 500 responses, utilized a "MaxDiff" ranking system to evaluate 15 core features of early smartphone AI. Privacy was the most desired feature, scoring 17.8% positive responses, which was 5.6 percentage points higher than the next-ranked feature, Insight.
“Given that Apple has uniquely flagged Private Cloud Compute as core to its approach, building on a recent history of stronger advertising privacy safeguards in its app store and contrasted with AI privacy mishaps from rivals, Apple appears positioned to gain brand interest and AI market share from its out-of-the-gate focus on strong privacy,” analysts said in a note.
Rosenblatt also pointed out Apple's strategic focus on specialized large language models (LLMs) and Apple silicon, which seems to shield the company from the cost pressures affecting other tech giants.
Companies like Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Meta (NASDAQ:META), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are expected to increase their capital expenditure by nearly $40 billion this year compared to last. In contrast, Apple is expected to maintain consistent levels of capital expenditure, indicating a “non-disruptive” approach to investment, analysts noted.
“So Apple can have its cake (healthy margins) and eat it too, by using integration via Private Cloud Compute with third parties to offer the benefits of these companies' massive investments,” analysts continued.
Rosenblatt also raised their price target on AAPL from $196 to $260, implying a potential upside of about 24%.