Apple’s biggest product launch of the year arrived Thursday, and new CEO John Ternus made one thing clear: big screens matter more than AI right now.
iPhone Duo
iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max
Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4
AirPods 5… and Joz pic.twitter.com/TWj3GjDSmk
— John Ternus (@johnternus) September 9, 2026
Ternus unveiled the iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable smartphone, priced at $1,999. The device features a 7.6-inch unfolded display and a 5.4-inch outer screen. Ternus said competing foldables feel like “two phones awkwardly stuck together” and positioned the Duo as something different.
AAPL opened at $315.34 on Thursday, up 16% year-to-date coming into the session. The stock has a 52-week range of $225.95 to $344.57 and a market cap of $4.60 trillion.
The iPhone 18 lineup will launch with premium-priced models only. Anyone wanting a cheaper base model will need to wait until 2027. Apple also raised iPhone 18 Pro pricing by $100 and bumped prices on older models too.
A long-awaited Siri AI update will roll out in beta this month, but it will not be available in the EU or China at launch.
On the institutional side, Payden & Rygel increased its Apple position by 275.8% during Q2, ending the quarter with 138,310 shares worth roughly $40 million. Apple now makes up 3.1% of their portfolio and is their second-largest holding.
Other big names have been active too. Norges Bank picked up a new stake worth roughly $52.3 billion in Q4. Nuveen entered a new position worth $17.5 billion in Q1. Vanguard lifted its stake by 1.9% in Q4 and now holds 1.43 billion shares worth $387.7 billion. Overall, 67.73% of AAPL is held by institutional investors.
Apple reported $2.02 EPS last quarter, beating the $1.89 estimate by $0.13. Revenue came in at $109.42 billion, up 16.4% year over year and slightly above the $109.04 billion consensus.
Analyst sentiment is mixed heading into the launch. Wedbush kept its “outperform” rating with a $400 price target. Tigress Financial maintained a “strong buy” with a $375 target. Rosenblatt raised its target from $300 to $303 but kept a “neutral” rating. Barclays held its “underweight” rating with a $245 target.
The consensus across 39 analysts sits at “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $331.53.
On the competitive front, Huawei launched its Mate XT2 tri-fold phone ahead of Apple’s event, putting pressure on the Duo before it even hits shelves.
Apple also launched AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12, and Watch Ultra 4 at Thursday’s event, rounding out a broad hardware refresh.
The iPhone 18 Pro adds a 2-nanometer A20 Pro chip, improved cameras, longer battery life, and upgraded Siri features.
Equities analysts expect Apple to post $8.74 EPS for the full year.
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