Apple rises after strong iPhone 15 pre-orders suggests demand is outpacing supply

• Apple stock jumped as much as 2% on Monday after reports said the iPhone 15 is seeing strong pre-orders.
• Wedbush and Goldman Sachs both said that internal checks suggest demand is outstripping supply for the new iPhone.
• "We view the extended lead times for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max as a positive indication of consumer demand," Goldman Sachs said.

Apple stock jumped as much as 2% on Monday after reports from Wall Street suggested that the iPhone 15 is seeing strong demand from consumers.

The iPhone 15 was unveiled last week and pre-orders for the phone started on Friday. The new iPhone 15 is set to go on sale at Apple's physical retail stores this Friday.

According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, pre-orders for the iPhone 15 are up between 10% and 12% year-over-year when compared to the initial pre-orders for the iPhone 14 lineup.

"Delivery/shipment times now have moved to late October to early November for various models of iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max," Ives said in a Monday note. Outside of the US, Ives noted iPhone 15 pre-order strength in India, China, and parts of Europe.

Goldman Sachs said in a Monday note that e-commerce fulfillment dates are "quickly moving" from the launch date on Friday to in excess of eight weeks for select phones and regions, "suggesting that demand is outpacing supply."

"We view the extended lead times for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max as a positive indication of consumer demand and for increasing price/mix," Goldman Sachs said, adding that the iPhone 15 in the color pink is also seeing strong demand.

The strong pre-orders, combined with internal checks with Apple's supply chain and strong promotions from wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T, give Ives confidence that Apple will initially sell between 85 million and 90 million units of the iPhone 15.

According to Ives, much of the demand for the iPhone 15 lineup is towards the more expensive Pro and Pro Max models, which should help boost Apple's average selling price of the iPhone by $100 to about $925.

"We believe iPhone units should level out in the 225 million unit range in FY24 and a rising average selling price which is being underestimated by the Street as Cupertino has a massive pent-up installed base upgrade cycle now underway," Ives said.

After Apple's stock price quickly surged 2.3% in early Monday trades, but it pared its gain to just over 1%. Goldman Sachs and Wedbush rate Apple at "Buy" and "Outperform" with a $216 and $240 price target, respectively.