Apple shares rise as iPhone holiday sales forecast soothes supply woes

Apple shares rose about 2% premarket on Friday after upbeat forecasts for the lucrative holiday quarter suggested the latest iPhone 17 models were driving a sales rebound despite delays in shipping to key market China.

While the supply constraints weighed on sales in the fourth quarter, investors remained optimistic as the September launch of the new iPhone lineup helped Apple shares cross above $4 trillion in market capitalization earlier this week, joining Nvidia and Microsoft.

The outlook has also helped allay concerns around Apple going slow on the integration of some long-awaited artificial intelligence features, even as other tech majors race ahead.

“I just know that owning this stock for many decades … When you’re really big like Apple, you don’t have to move fast, sometimes you just have to get it right eventually,” said Eric Clark, chief investment officer at Accuvest.

Amazon and Apple shares are still the worst performers for the year so far among the so-called “Magnificent Seven” group of magacaps, though the e-commerce giant’s stock soared before the bell on Friday on stellar cloud growth in the quarter.

Apple’s stock trades at 33.4 times analysts’ profit expectations, representing a premium to Microsoft’s  31.7 and Meta Platform’s  22.3, according to LSEG data.