An increasing number of Chinese government offices and organizations are instructing their employees to refrain from bringing Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and other foreign devices to the workplace. This new development, as reported by Bloomberg, signals the widening of the earlier ban on bringing devices made by foreign companies to work.
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The report emphasized that numerous state-owned enterprises and government departments across eight provinces have directed their employees to opt for local brands in the past couple of months. Earlier in September, a few agencies in Beijing and Tianjin instructed their staff to refrain from using foreign devices at work.
China Is a Key Market for Apple
It remains unclear how this move will hurt iPhone sales, but China is a crucial market for the company. Apple generated total revenue of $72.6 billion from Greater China in Fiscal 2023. This represents about 19% of its total net sales in Fiscal 2023.
Moreover, Apple achieved record revenue in Greater China during the September quarter. Further, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook sees “China as an incredibly important market,” and he remains “very optimistic about it.”
With this backdrop, let’s look at the Street’s forecast for AAPL stock.
Is Apple a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
How analysts react to this latest development remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Apple stock has 24 Buys and eight Holds for a Strong Buy consensus rating. Further, analysts’ average AAPL price target of $203.16 implies 2.83% upside potential from current levels.
