Apple Gains As UBS Survey Points To Higher Audience Engagement, Upgrade Potential By Investing.com

By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares rose more than 2% Thursday following a UBS (NYSE:UBS) survey that showed the iPhone maker’s product line remained resilient while also forecasting robust demand for its newer models.

The bank has a $142 price target Apple shares, which is nearly 6% higher than the current price.

UBS analyst David Vogt shared the data covering around 4,000 iPhone users across four geographies. The aim of the survey was to get a better understanding of the iPhone installed base and consumer involvement with different services offered by the company.

The survey said replacement cycle shortened slightly to 2.1 years from 2.2 last year, mainly led by consumers in China opting for 5G services.

Roughly one-third of the phones carry a costlier tag of $999 and above while 20% still have an iPhone 7 or an even older phone. Thus suggests a potential market comprising 80% of users going for an upgraded iPhone.

In another development, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) on Thursday reported a net profit of $4.98 billion, beating analysts’ expectations. TSMC is a key supplier of chips to Apple and its numbers serve as sort of a barometer for demand for iPhones.

Revenue rose 25.4% to $12.92 billion, slightly higher than the midpoint of the $12.7 billion to $13 billion range the chipmaker had forecast.