Investing.com -- Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is on track to be the first company to hit $4 trillion in market capitalization, according to analysts at Wedbush.
In a note to clients on Sunday, the analysts added they expect the iPhone manufacturer's valuation to hit that level in 2025, following by artificial intelligence-darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).
Shares in Apple have soared by more than 24% so far this year, buoyed in part by hopes that recently tepid iPhone demand will be bolstered by the tech giant's plans to enhance its products with new AI-fueled capabilities.
Some analysts have suggested the "Apple Intelligence" features -- reportedly set to be included in a round of updates to Apple's latest 18 iPhone operating platform this week -- may persuade more customers to upgrade their older models to the new devices. Earlier this year, Chief Executive Tim Cook lauded the Apple Intelligence system, which aims to use AI to improve its Siri voice assistant and deliver more personalized offerings, as the company's "next big step."
Apple will also deliver its September quarter results on Oct. 31.
"We believe many bears and long time Apple naysayers that have missed the last $1 trillion [plus] upward move in market cap for Apple have miscalculated three very important dynamics of the Apple story: [...] unmatched installed base of over 2 billion iOS devices and 1.5 billion iPhones with [roughly] 300 million iPhones in the window of an upgrade opportunity, [...] services business worth $2 trillion of valuation which is increasing its monetization of the customer base, [and] consumer AI will go through Apple's ecosystem with over 20% of the world's population ultimately interacting with AI on an Apple device the next few years," the Wedbush analysts wrote.
They maintained an "Outperform" rating of Apple's stock and kept their price target for the shares at $300.