Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) hasn’t been the most impressive gainer in recent months, but, at the very least, it’s avoided plunging into a bear market. After Thursday’s brutal session, much of the Magnificent Seven is in a bear market, with some members just a bad day or two away from experiencing a 20% peak-to-trough decline.
Meanwhile, Apple stock is down a relatively muted 11% from its own peak. And after holding its support level at around $250, it feels like the $3.7 trillion Cupertino-based giant might have what it takes to lead again. Dan Ives, senior analyst at Wedbush Securities, has stayed incredibly bullish on Apple. Even after a tough start to 2026, he’s hanging onto his Street-high price target of $350 per share.
Apple is quietly outperforming again on the way down.
All the same bullish drivers he argued for are still in play, even as tech falls into turmoil and the S&P flirts with correction territory. With Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) now deep into a bear market, off more than 30% from their own highs, it feels like Apple is, once again, ready to act as the leader of the group of seven tech stocks.
Even if it means losing the least on the way down, Apple is starting to stand out, and the iPhone maker might not need much help from the other six stocks as it looks to move higher in a year where the company’s prudent, deliberate AI strategy might actually be the optimal path forward.
In a prior piece, I highlighted the potential scenario in which Apple wasn’t behind in the AI race, but rather one of the few mega-cap tech titans not at great risk of getting ahead of its skis. In any case, the big question is whether it is possible to reap the significant rewards by grabbing a front-row seat to the AI revolution without having to pay the full price of admission.
Apple looks set up well for the second half
Could Google, the maker of Gemini, whose parent company is Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), be giving Apple a discounted front-row, center seat?
Time will tell, but 2026 is certainly shaping up to be a year where Apple is ready to deliver an AI experience that goes above and beyond just chatbots while keeping much of the magic of AI behind the curtain (the whole premise of what Ives describes as “invisible AI”).
Add the recent strength of the iPhone 17 to the equation, along with the deep lineup of budget devices (iPhone 17e and MacBook Neo) and a foldable iPhone later to go with a redesigned MacBook Pro (rumored to have a thinner form factor with a touchscreen and M6 chip) this year, and it certainly looks like the device upgrade cycle, one that Ives has been talking about in recent months, is already well underway.
In any case, I’m with Ives, who sees beyond the latest slump in the stock to the real opportunity at hand. There’s real strength in the numbers and serious catalysts in store for the quarters to come.
The iPhone 17 is a surprisingly hot seller, and early signs suggest Apple’s a share-taker in the Chinese market, which Ives describes as a “wild card.” Even if the market stays upset about AI and tech for a while longer, I do think that it’s the results that will help Apple pull away from the pack that might be grounded for some time.
Apple Intelligence could be a big business
If the iPhone supercycle isn’t enough, perhaps the unrecognized potential of Apple’s Intelligence path ahead could help cause a multiple re-rating. Sure, Apple Intelligence might be seen as unremarkable in its current state. But Apple is hard at work to get it right.
And as agents enter the mainstream, there is no better company to seize the opportunity than Apple. What has me most bullish about the firm is that it’s still “thinking differently” after 50 years. Perhaps that vastly different perspective is what Apple needs to capture the early rewards to be had by the consumer agent revolution.
What’s more, Ives thinks that a potential Apple Intelligence+ subscription could add as much as $100 to the share price. There’s no question that Ives is incredibly bullish. But I think he’s right to be, especially while it’s so easy to be bearish.
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