NEW YORK, April 28, 2026, 10:35 EDT
- Apple shares climbed in morning action, outpacing the softer Nasdaq as investors awaited the company’s April 30 results.
- UBS bumped its Apple price target up to $287, previously $280, sticking with a Neutral rating. The bank pointed to iPhone share gains as the reason.
- Apple faces its first big investor moment since announcing that Tim Cook is set to transition to executive chairman, with John Ternus taking the CEO job in September.
Apple climbed roughly 1.1% early Tuesday, helped along by a UBS price-target boost and bets ahead of the iPhone giant’s earnings coming up this week. At 10:20 a.m. EDT, the stock changed hands at $270.59, a gain of $2.98 from Monday’s close, with the session’s range so far stretching from $267.29 to $272.48.
This time, the timing lands just as Apple is set to release its fiscal Q2 numbers on Thursday, April 30. Tech giants have rallied sharply, but fresh skepticism around AI spending is starting to bite at market confidence. According to Apple’s investor-relations page, the earnings call kicks off at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern.
This is all landing in the first full week of trading since Apple’s announcement: Tim Cook moving up to executive chairman, John Ternus taking the CEO job on September 1. With that, the upcoming earnings call gets more scrutiny—investors are after the numbers but also watching for any cues that the incoming leadership can push Apple’s AI narrative forward without squeezing margins.
UBS bumped its Apple target up to $287 from $280, citing iPhone market-share gains as a potential edge while higher memory costs weigh on Android competitors. The bank held its Neutral rating, projecting a modest beat for the March quarter—revenue seen close to $109 billion, with most of the upside coming from iPhone and Mac sales.
The bank put its iPhone revenue estimate at $56.2 billion for the quarter, adding that services growth would probably stay under its 14% forecast. “Strength in payments” is being counteracted by weaker App Store numbers, it said. UBS expects Apple’s consolidated gross margin to come in at 48.5% — that’s the slice of revenue left after production costs. Investing.com
Visible Alpha consensus numbers, as reported by S&P Global, show analysts are looking for fiscal Q2 revenue of $109.3 billion. iPhone sales are pegged close to $56.5 billion, while services revenue is forecast just under $30 billion. Notably, services deliver margins topping 70%—a level well above the hardware side—making the segment a key driver in Apple’s overall profit story.
Elsewhere, a weaker tone. The Nasdaq slipped at the open—investors were weighing whether the AI surge is enough to keep tech stocks powering ahead. The S&P 500 also kicked off in the red. AI-linked shares got another hit after Reuters said concerns about OpenAI’s growth targets were mounting.
Apple sits apart from Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon, which are under scrutiny for their AI capital expenditures—think hundreds of billions tied up in data centers and computing gear. All four release earnings Wednesday. According to Reuters, investors want to see evidence these spending sprees are driving gains in cloud and advertising.
Apple faces a tightrope act: proving that AI actually boosts the value of the iPhone and its services. As Reuters noted last week, Ternus is set to take on the job of weaving AI into the iPhone just as Apple battles Nvidia, Google, and Meta in an AI-fueled market that’s moving fast, with new tools and devices rolling out.
“I expect his biggest challenge and efforts will be focused on getting a better AI story and offering together that relies more on Apple’s own capabilities and less on third parties,” Bob O’Donnell, head of TECHnalysis Research, told Reuters. Gil Luria, managing director at D.A. Davidson, sees Ternus’ elevation as a signal: Apple could push further into new hardware—folding phones, glasses, even VR devices aren’t off the table. Reuters
UBS flags a possible downside: rising memory costs might squeeze product margins this June quarter. Apple’s stock, already valued near $4.0 trillion and priced as one of the market’s biggest profit engines, leaves little room for disappointment. Should iPhone demand only come in line, services growth lose momentum, or if management turns cautious on the June outlook, gains from Tuesday could easily evaporate.
Apple’s most recent quarter didn’t disappoint. Revenue for the fiscal first quarter landed at $143.8 billion, which is a 16% jump from last year. Diluted EPS came in at $2.84, up 19%. CEO Tim Cook flagged record highs for both iPhone and services revenue.
