Citi reaffirms Apple buy ahead of WWDC, eyes Siri AI and services growth
With Apple’s stock near 52-week highs, Wall Street is debating whether the tech giant can cement its AI credentials without a full product launch, while services revenue hits record levels.
Citi analyst Atif Malik has reaffirmed a Buy rating for Apple with a $315 price target ahead of the WWDC 2026 conference on June 8, signalling that the market’s focus should extend beyond artificial intelligence hype to the company’s broader ecosystem strategy. Malik emphasised that the primary narrative will centre on the integration of a revamped Siri capable of supporting agentic AI workflows, allowing the assistant to manage multi-step tasks across applications rather than simply responding to voice commands.
The revamped Siri, reportedly built on a 1.2 trillion parameter system developed in collaboration with Google, is expected to function similarly to OpenAI’s ChatGPT by handling complex requests and analysing on-screen content using both web and device context. However, Malik cautioned investors that the full update is scheduled to ship in the autumn, meaning the June 8 conference will serve as a preview of Apple’s AI direction rather than a completed product launch.
Alongside the AI developments, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple will announce a native bill-splitting feature for iOS 17, designed to compete directly with fintech applications such as Venmo, Cash App, and Splitwise. The feature will allow users to photograph receipts, assign costs, account for taxes and tips, and generate payment requests settled via Apple Cash, embedding financial tools directly into the operating system to capture transaction volume within Apple’s walled garden.
Financially, Apple enters the conference with robust fundamentals, having reported record services revenue of $31 billion for the March quarter with a gross margin exceeding 75%. The company also guided for a Q3 fiscal 2026 gross margin of 47.5% to 48.5%, a decrease from the 49.3% recorded in the March quarter, citing rising memory costs that make the high-margin services business increasingly critical to the investment case.
Other major firms have also raised their price targets, with Morgan Stanley at $330, Wedbush at $400, Evercore ISI at $365, Melius at $385, and Bank of America at $380. With Apple shares trading around $310, near their 52-week high, the market is assessing whether the company can credibly position itself as an AI winner to sustain its current valuation multiple, or if investors are pricing in a narrative that may not materialise immediately at the keynote.
