Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is the largest publicly traded company in the world. Throughout its long and storied history, it has been many things — a computing pioneer, a design trendsetter, and an innovator in mobile technology.

It’s hard to overstate the strength of Apple’s brand or its dominance in consumer electronics. At present, it seems like the most likely candidate to reach a $4 trillion market capitalization — on the other hand, some have called into question the company’s growth prospects as of late.

At press time, AAPL stock was trading at $241.29 — since the beginning of 2024, the price of an Apple share has increased by 30.33% — in contrast, over the last 30 days, a 2.21% pullback has occurred.

Apple is faced with mounting regulatory challenges and weakening iPhone sales in the crucial Chinese market. The company’s Q4 2024 earnings call was a success, as it entailed a pretty significant beat in terms of earnings and a modest beat when it comes to revenues. That said, the question on many investors’ minds is whether Apple stock can defy recent challenges and climb to $300 in 2025.

Wall Street isn’t confident that Apple stock can reach $300 in 2025

To reach the $300 mark, Apple stock would have to rally by 24.33% from current prices. While that is an ambitious figure, Apple has secured greater returns in 7 of the last 10 years — so it wouldn’t necessarily require some unforeseen positive development to be met.

Wall Street isn’t optimistic — at present, Apple stock is trading at one of the highest multiples among the ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech titans — and it has the slowest growth rate of all of them. 

Accordingly, analysts are only slightly bearish. Of the 29 researchers who issue ratings for the stock, 19 rate it a ‘Buy, 7 rate it a ‘Hold’, and only 3 rate it a ‘Sell’. The average price target for AAPL stock sits at just $244.77 — equating to a negligible 1.06% upside. While this is an improvement from the Street’s predictions in December, which saw a 4.29% downside at the average price target, the outlook is still looking rather disappointing.

Some analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, forecast that the price of an Apple share will reach as high as $325 — although readers should note that Ives set the Street high price target. In contrast, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett recently downgraded the stock to a ‘Sell’ rating down from a prior ‘Neutral’ rating, citing valuation issues and muted consumer response to Apple’s latest AI-driven features.

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