Today, BNP Paribas raised Apple’s stock price target from $260 to $300. Here are the details.

Apple Could Turn Memory Shortage into Opportunity

In the past few weeks, we have seen many research reports mapping the impact of the memory shortage on the smartphone market.

These reports generally indicate that while Apple continues to benefit from its successful iPhone 17 series, low-end phone manufacturers are the most affected due to the ongoing memory shortage. This is because these manufacturers have very little room to absorb the higher component costs.

Today, BNP Paribas published an investment note arguing that Apple’s supply chain and scale are in a stronger position to withstand these pressures and may even gain market share (via Bloomberg).

As a result, BNP upgraded Apple’s stock from ‘neutral’ to ‘outperform’ and set the price target at $300, a 15.3% increase from $260.

From Bloomberg:

“We believe the memory shortage has a greater impact on smaller competitors in the low/mid segment. Apple can increase its iPhone market share gains by leveraging its size and unique supply chain, along with the ongoing mix shift towards premium devices,” wrote analyst David O’Connor.

O’Connor noted that Apple is also affected by memory issues, but added, “it has more upper income and control over costs compared to its competitors.”

In the last quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh stated that the company closed the December quarter with stronger-than-expected demand and very little iPhone inventory, which put them in a “supply race.”

They also added that the constraints at that time were related to chip production limits rather than memory, having very little impact in the December quarter, but were expected to have a greater impact on margins in the March quarter. Apple is expected to release this quarter report on April 30.

Cook also mentioned that Apple has “a range of options” to deal with rising memory costs, but did not go into details.

Today, Apple’s shares closed at $270.23, up 2.59%. The stock has risen nearly 5% since the last quarter results, partly due to recent market fluctuations related to the conflict with Iran.

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