Apple's rare price increase may suppress Mac/iPad demand; Evercore still maintains "Outperform" rating and sees it reaching $365

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Apple (AAPL.US) announced on Thursday that it has raised the prices of most of its hardware products, drawing attention to the outlook for consumer electronics demand. Evercore analysts believe that this price adjustment reflects the increasing pressure on Apple's profit margins due to rising memory costs. While the price increase may help maintain profitability, it could also have some impact on the demand for Mac and iPad products.

Evercore analyst Amit Daryanani stated in a recent report that this price adjustment sends a clear signal that the impact of rising memory prices is occurring faster and more significantly than the market previously expected, making it difficult for Apple to fully absorb the cost pressure.

He pointed out that it is uncommon for Apple to raise prices midway through a product's lifecycle, making this price increase somewhat unique. "This price increase helps protect the company's gross margin, but raising prices midway through the product sales cycle is very rare for Apple and increases the risk of suppressed demand for Mac and iPad products."

However, he believes that Apple did not raise the price of the iPhone this time, so the short-term impact is relatively limited. The pricing strategy for the new generation of iPhones to be released this fall will become the next important focus for the market.

Despite this, Daryanani maintains an "outperform" rating on Apple stock and sets a target price of $365.

According to information released by Apple, this price increase affects the vast majority of its Mac, iPad, and smart home products. Among them, the starting price of the MacBook Neo has been raised from $599 to $699; the starting price of the iPad Pro has increased from $999 to $1,199; the iPad Air has risen from $599 to $749; and the starting price of the MacBook Pro has increased from $1,699 to $1,999.

In addition, the price of the HomePod has been raised from $299 to $349, the HomePod mini from $99 to $129, the Apple TV from $149 to $199, and the Vision Pro headset from $3,499 to $3,699.

The high-end Mac mini equipped with the M4 Pro chip has also seen its price increase from $1,399 to $1,599. In contrast, Apple has not adjusted the prices of its iPhone product line this time. However, the market generally expects the company to make price adjustments when it launches the new generation of iPhones this fall.

In fact, Apple has already begun to gradually raise the prices of some products.

In May of this year, the company stopped selling the M4 Mac mini version with 256GB of storage, effectively raising the starting price of the Mac mini from $599 to $799. Additionally, the entry-level iPad, iMac, and Mac Studio have also completed price adjustments.

Evercore believes that Apple's decision to raise product prices reflects the current costs of electronic components, especially the rising prices of memory, which are eroding hardware manufacturers' profit margins Analysts pointed out that in recent years, the demand for AI servers has continued to grow, driving up the prices of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as well as DRAM and NAND Flash storage chips, putting cost pressure on many consumer electronics manufacturers.

However, compared to other products, Apple has chosen to postpone adjusting the price of the iPhone, which also shows the company's cautious attitude towards the demand in the smartphone market, hoping to avoid impacting the sales performance of its core products.

Affected by the price increase news, Apple's stock price fell more than 5% on Thursday. Market participants believe that whether Apple can successfully absorb the rising costs through price increases while maintaining stable end demand will be an important factor affecting the company's performance in the second half of the year, and the pricing strategy for the new generation iPhone in the fall will also become a focus of investor attention