Financial advice group Rothschild & Co Redburn has raised its Apple price target by a huge $140, specifically because it believes that an iPhone Ultra is a "match made in heaven" for the company.
Rothschild & Co Redburn doesn't seem to concentrate much on Apple, and its usual price targets tend to lag behind firms that do, such as Morgan Stanley. But while Morgan Stanley recently dropped its price target by $4 to $360, Rothschild has dramatically increased its from $260 to $400.
Unsurprisingly, it's also raised its status from Neutral to Buy. This may not be the end of the rising price target, either, as the company's Timm Schulze-Melander has told CNBC.
"We think we're sitting on this already pretty conservatively," he said, and that "we expect this to be a very strong contender" in the foldable market.
Redburn, the finance firm Rothschild & Co's research arm, is confident that the iPhone Ultra will be successful, even as other reports have claimed it will start at $2,325. That's over $1,000 more than the starting price of the current iPhone 17 Pro Max, although all iPhone prices are expected to rise shortly.
Redburn's reasoning is that foldable phones are big in China, and also that Apple entering a product category "frequently accelerates the growth and size of such markets." Schulze-Melander also notes that foldable phones currently cost 80% more than regular ones so Apple's pricing may not be out of line.
Then what Apple's pricing will do is protect the rest of the range. Redburn doesn't expect that the iPhone Ultra is going to cannibalize the rest of the product range in any quantity.
That doesn't mean there won't be some iPhone 18 Pro Max sales lost to the iPhone Ultra. Redburn predicts that Apple will sell 14 million of the iPhone Ultra across fiscal year 2027, with just 4 million at the expense of other models.
How Rothschild & Co Redburn got here
Schulze-Melander says that the company is surprised that Apple has not entered the foldable market before. He argues that making such a premium and high-price device is a "match made in heaven" for Apple.
But compared to higher-profile finance firms such as Goldman Sachs, it appears to have rarely advised its investors about Apple, and as such, it has been underwater for some time. The publicly available records show it having set AAPL price targets since Rothschild & Co rebranded to include the name of the Redburn company it acquired.
Those records show only that the combined firm's price targets going from $230 to $260 in September 2025.
So perhaps the greater surprise is that Redburn is only now recommending that investors buy Apple shares. It does seem to also be ranking Apple higher than firms that have more publicly followed it for years, with Goldman Sachs currently setting it at $360.
That Goldman Sachs price target is down $10 after the most recent Apple earnings report. It was reduced specifically because of the possibility that Apple won't meet demand for the next quarter.
Rothschild & Co Redburn don't seem to be considering this factor. However, the company does warn that there are potential delays for the iPhone Ultra because of manufacturing issues.
