(BFM Bourse) – Dan Ives, the analyst at the investment company in charge of the technology sector Wedbush, delivered his 10 “Christmas gift” forecasts for next year. In particular, he sees tech stocks increasing by 25%.
Dan Ives is probably one of the star analysts on Wall Street, at least from a media perspective. Known for being very bullish in his sector, the analyst in charge of tech at the investment company Wedbush is regularly invited on television sets for CNBC and Bloomberg TV.
This friendly specialist in “big techs” delivered the 2024 edition of his “Christmas gifts”, that is to say some somewhat daring forecasts for next year, by publishing a screenshot of his research note on the social network
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Tesla would launch a car for less than $30,000
Ten in number, these “Christmas gifts” are quite amusing for some. The most striking is perhaps the fourth: Tesla would launch an electric vehicle for less than 30,000 dollars (around 27,000 euros) by the end of 2024.
This vehicle would be produced in Mexico and could “drastically shake up the game on volumes for (Elon) Musk and others”, underlines Dan Ives. This forecast is certainly daring, but not fanciful. It should be noted that Tesla has, this year, sacrificed its prices and margins to maintain its volumes, reducing its prices several times to the point that the Model 3 can be purchased, new, for less than $39,000.
In addition, Tesla indicated as early as last March that it planned to build a factory in Mexico and recently received a building permit from Mexican authorities in the state of Nuevo Leon, according to Reuters. Automotive engineer Sandy Munro, cited by Business Insider, judged that this Mexican site could produce a Tesla for around $25,000.
Apple buys ESPN
Dan Ives also sees Apple buying ESPN, a famous American sports television channel, owned by Walt Disney. The analyst believes that a sale of this asset is “one way or another on the table as Bob Iger (CEO of Disney) and the board of directors carefully examine the core assets of Disney.”
Once again, if this bet turns out to be risky, there is nothing absurd about it. Third Point, the fund of billionaire Dan Loeb, had loudly demanded the split of ESPN from Disney in 2022 before, of course, changing its mind.
Additionally, Disney recently launched a strategic review of its assets. In November, Bank of America estimated that ESPN could be worth as much as $24 billion. The American bank then emphasized that Disney would instead seek to bring in new minority shareholders, Bob Iger wishing to keep ESPN in the company’s fold. However, Bank of America cited Apple among the potential companies interested in this minority share, in particular to establish the development of its Apple+ streaming service.
“As Apple has expressed interest in acquiring sports rights, there could be a strategic interest for the group to further assert itself as a true player in sports media. Furthermore, given the deep pockets of this group (.. .), this could be a “try before you buy” scenario that sets the stage for an outright acquisition of ESPN at some point,” Bank of America analysts explained.
Apple and Microsoft at more than 4,000 billion dollars in capitalization (or almost)
Other forecasts from Dan Ives are in line with his pronounced optimism on the tech sector in Bouse. The analyst estimates that the compartment will post an increase of 25% on the stock market next year, thanks to solid corporate spending in IT and the rise in artificial intelligence. In another of his predictions, the specialist also sees AI becoming “mainstream” and representing 8% to 10% of IT budgets in 2024 compared to less than 1% in 2023.
Still in this same logic, Dan Ives sees Apple exceeding $4,000 billion in market capitalization at the end of 2024, while Microsoft would cross this bar at the beginning of 2025. More broadly, he estimates that the “magnificent seven” ( or “seven mercenaries”), that is to say Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla will experience an increase of more than 30% in 2024.
In the unlisted sector, Dan Ives estimates that Elon Musk will, next year, raise billions of dollars in capital to strengthen X and transform the social network into a “super-app”, which he will monetize further.
Like any prediction, Dan Ives’ bets are obviously open to debate, and it seems impossible that all of his projections will come true.
It should be noted, however, that he was right on several points last year, in its 2023 edition. Dan Ives saw Elon Muks appointed a CEO of Twitter who would not be himself (this was the case), tech stocks are up 20% (the Nasdaq Composite is up 43.35% so far), Microsoft wins its standoff against the American competition watchdog, the FTC, to buy Activision (which happened) and “Big Tech” further reduce their workforce, which actually happened, particularly at the start of the year.
The analyst also estimated that Apple would launch “Apple Glasses” working with augmented reality in the summer of 2023. He was almost right again since the Cupertino group unveiled its mixed reality headset in June , VisionPro.
Julien Marion – ©2023 BFM Bourse
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