Citigroup has maintained its "buy" rating for Apple (AAPL, Financial), setting a target price of $240. The bank believes that investor expectations for Apple's 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) are relatively low. Scheduled for June 9, the event's theme is "Breakthrough Updates Coming to Apple Platforms," and it is expected to unveil the latest software updates for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, as well as new Apple Intelligence features.
Despite the delay of AI-supported personalized Siri functions until 2026, which has put pressure on Apple's stock, Citigroup remains optimistic about Apple's position in the personal AI services market. Apple's strengths include its proprietary chip design capabilities, seamless integration of hardware, software, and services, and a vast data foundation from 2.35 billion users, enabling continuous user experience optimization.
Apple plans to change its operating system naming format to be year-based, with systems announced at WWDC 2025 being named iOS 26, macOS 26, iPadOS 26, and so on. The updates are expected to significantly revamp the multi-device user interface, aiming for a more unified design similar to the Vision Pro OS. Citigroup sees these updates as evidence of Apple's ongoing commitment to a cohesive and integrated ecosystem, as well as its focus on spatial computing.
Beyond operating system updates, Citigroup emphasizes the importance of Apple Intelligence enhancements. With significant Siri updates delayed in the iOS 18 cycle, Apple may introduce a deeply integrated personalized Siri in the iOS 26 cycle, although the exact timing remains uncertain. Apple Intelligence features are anticipated to expand to more regions and may include additional LLM partners beyond OpenAI, such as Gemini.
