Key Analyst: What to Expect From Apple’s Keynote in September

By Chris Lange Published Sep 3, 10:55AM EDT

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has seen its shares fall from grace in the past quarter, but things are starting to turn around for this tech giant. In just the past week, shares are up over 2%, as well as 3% year to date. Oppenheimer released an update on where it thinks Apple is headed in the near future, including notes on a press event Apple is hosting on September 9 in San Francisco.

In its report, Oppenheimer provided expectations on the type of products that will be announced, as well as its thoughts on the longer-term impact of those products.

The firm believes Apple will unveil an upgraded iPhone and Apple TV, as well as highlight new features in iOS with a focus on Force Touch and contextual awareness. Oppenheimer believes investors and customers may find the launch event disappointing and ultimately losing its appeal. However, the firm does not think that bares negative indication to Apple’s consumer reception or competitive position.

In terms of the next generation of iPhone, Oppenheimer expects image sensors to be the brightest spot among all upcoming hardware improvements, which include pressure sensing (Force Touch), faster and more power-efficient processors, larger memory, faster fingerprint reader and a more durable aluminum body. This is expected to gradually lose its “sizzle” until a new device category is introduced.

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Aside from stronger raw computing power, the firm expects the most notable Apple TV upgrades will appear on the operating system and content. Oppenheimer believes Apple is likely to open up the OS on the device to allow users to install more third party apps (possibly games). A launch for Apple TV is expected in the first quarter of the 2016 calendar year.

Later in September, a public release of iOS 9 is expected, around the iPhone 6s launch. Apart from the subtle design changes, Oppenheimer believes Apple management will go into further details on the integration of Force Touch on the new OS, and also that contextual awareness improvements will be another focal point of the upgrade.

Oppenheimer gave its bottom line as:

We expect an “underwhelming” launch event next week. Our low expectation is hardly indicative of less confidence in Apple’s ecosystem. On the contrary, we believe many of the seemingly disappointing announcements will have strengthened Apple’s ecosystem advantage over the longer term.

Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating for Apple with a $155 price target, which implies upside of 38% from current prices.

Shares of Apple were relatively flat at $112.22 Thursday morning. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $145.68 and a 52-week trading range of $92.00 to $134.54.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.