Apple shares hit record ahead of Worldwide Developers Conference, VR headset announcement

Apple shares have gained 41% this year, outpacing S&P's 12% rise

Apple shares soared to an all-time high on Monday ahead of the company's Worldwide Developers Conference and CEO Tim Cook's highly anticipated keynote in which he unveiled the long awaited VR headset. 

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AAPL APPLE INC. 237.33 +2.40 +1.02%

The stock rose above $182.01 intra-day before pulling back to close fractionally lower. Shares have gained 41% this year. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an annoucement of new products on the Apple campus Monday, June 5, 2023, in Cupertino, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu / AP Images)

Cook rolled out ‘Vision Pro’ which will retail for $3,499 way above Meta's similar product which lists around $499. Other products rolled out included updated Macs an M2 Ultra chip and IOS updates, among other items. 

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Prior to the official unveil, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to clients, said the product should likely be a game-changer. 

"Apple is finally set to unveil its mixed reality headset product named Reality Pro with price points in the ~$3k range running off a new operating system called xrOS. We expect WWDC to be another 'flex the muscles moment' for Cupertino heading into a robust product cycle into the next 6-9 months led by the anniversary iPhone 15 launch this Fall into its golden installed base," he wrote. 

Analysts also expect the headset to include premium features like a high-quality display and hand-tracking for use without an external controller.  

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Ives has an outperform rating on the stock with a 12-month price target of $205 per share, which would be about a 13% increase from current levels.