Apple
‘s iPhone has dominated the smartphone market for teenagers for about a decade. The winning streak continued this year, which is good news for the stock.
At 87%, the share of teens who own iPhones is at near record levels, according to a survey by Piper Sandler that covered more than 9,000 respondents. The record of 88% was set in spring 2021.
Teen ownership of iPhones has never been below 80% since early 2018 and has been above 60% since 2014, making it clear that Apple has commanded the top spot in that market for years.
Apple’s (ticker: AAPL) stock was trading largely flat in Wednesday’s premarket trading, while futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were 0.4% higher.
The share of respondents who planned to upgrade to an iPhone 15 this fall or winter was at 23%, slightly below the 25% who intended to buy an iPhone 14 last spring. The percentage of teens who plan to buy AirPods remains at record highs.
The iPhone is Apple’s most important product, accounting for 48% of sales in the quarter that ended in June. The phone typically makes up about half of sales every quarter, so Apple needs to keep it relevant among the new income- generating cohort for Wall Street to be happy.
This survey is a sign that Apple is succeeding on that front, which is positive for the brand and the stock.
Apple stock trades at 27.2 times the per-share earnings expected for the coming year, above its five-year average of 23.5 times, suggesting that it is expensive relative to its historical value.
Write to Karishma Vanjani at [email protected].
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