Apple's 'iPhone likely bottomed': Here's what Wall Street is saying about the tech giant's Q1 results.

Price target: $230

Rating: Buy

Credit Suisse analyst Matthew Cabral highlighted the normalizing iPhone sales as a key reason for investor's positive reception.

This is likely driven by warming trade relations between the US and China, which may have improved iPhone sales in the short term. However, long-term challenges still exist in the market.

Cabral also noted that Apple's services business remains a major opportunity for further growth as the company begins to monetize the revenue stream over its enormous installed base of iPhones.

"While 'less bad' is a significant improvement from the rough start to the year, we remain Neutral as we see a long road to recovery for iPhone," Cabral wrote.

"Greater China (-22% y/y) remains a key swing factor ahead, as near-term cyclical factors (i.e., macro and trade tensions) appear to be easing, but we're concerned underlying structural headwinds remain given market saturation and aggressive local competition."

He added: "Finally on Services, revenue ($11.5bn, +16% y/y) reached an all-time high as Apple continues to shift toward monetizing its massive 900mn/1.4bn iPhone/total device installed base; App Store in particular posted a record quarter despite the ongoing headwind from a regulatory-related slowdown in China gaming."

Price target: NA

Rating: NA

Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Uerkwitz focused on Apple's share buybacks and dividend increase. He also highlighted the surprising growth in iPad sales.

"Apple announced an additional $75B share repurchase program as well as a 5% increase in the quarterly dividend," he wrote. "Given Apple's cash balance, its free cash flow generation abilities, its goal to reach a net cash-neutral position, the buyback program and dividend increase seem almost too conservative."

Uerkwitz added: "iPad sales exceeded expectations by the most dollar value due to strong sales of the new iPad Pro. The active installed base of iPhone, Mac, and iPad reached an all-time-high."

Price target: $215

Rating: Market Perform

Aaron Rakers of Wells Fargo differed from other analysts in his relatively low expectations for near-term revenue growth in the services division, but said the coming 5G capabilities represented a key area of growth for iPhone sales.

Apple recently entered a settlement for its long-running dispute with Qualcomm to speed its move into 5G technology.

"We continue to have a cautious view on Apple's Services growth sustainability over the coming quarters," Rakers wrote.

"While Apple highlighted the success of its iPhone trade-in program, in part driven by its higher incentives, we think anticipation of a 5G iPhone in 2020 could impact upgrades."

Price target: $230

Rating: Overweight

Michael Olson of Piper Jaffray noted that a clear path on revenues, through stabilizing iPhone sales and Services growth, have eased short-term investor fears ahead of the company's massive 5G opportunity.

He also saw support for the stock through the increased shareholder returns of capital.

"Looking at the remainder of FY19, we expect limited excitement around this year's iPhone launches, however, we believe that as long as services revenue continues to perform at or above expectations, this will tide investors over until anticipation for 5G iPhones begins to build, which is likely to start happening in 2H CY19," Olson wrote.

"In addition to the company's strong fundamental performance, Apple will be returning more cash to shareholders in the form of an increased dividend and $75B additional buyback authorization."

Price target: $230

Rating: Buy

Analyst Wamsi Mohan listed a host of factors driving improved sentiment, including resilient gross margins, accelerating services revenue, and strong capital return. He focused in particular to improvements in iPhone's trade-in process, which has driven better sales for new products.

"Apple highlighted that the recent initiative increased trade-in activity across geographies, especially China," he said. "This includes simplifying the trade-in process, new financing programs, and making it easier to transfer stored data between devices."

Mohan added: "Our analysis shows Apple is offering trade-in values that are at a premium compared to 3rd parties for these models."

Price target: $184

Rating: Neutral

Rod Hall of Goldman Sachs felt weak operating margins still clouded the iPhone maker despite improvements in other areas. "Though in line with our above consensus expectations we point out that guided Opex implies operating margins of ~21% that have not been seen since 2008 when the iPhone was just getting started," he wrote. "We believe fundamentals get more challenging as the year progresses and that the stock remains toward the top of its valuation range vs. the S&P 500. We reiterate our Neutral rating."