The year 2022 for Apple stock (NASDAQ: AAPL) was extremely terrible, but Jim Suva predicts that the year ahead will be fantastic. He works at Citigroup as a Senior Analyst.

Suva’s bull case for the Apple stock

Suva anticipates that the tech giant will see big gains in 2023 due to wage increases in India. More importantly, he does not believe that decreasing consumer spending will adversely affect iPhone sales.

Many believe that strong growth seen in iPhones over the past two years will see sharp declines ahead as macro inflationary pressures take a bite out of consumer spending. We don’t believe this is the case.

According to the Citi analyst, the multinational will soon introduce its AR/VR headset, which will serve as another driver for the price of Apple stock in 2023.

For the year, shares of the iPhone maker are down more than 25% at writing.

What else could help Apple Stock?

Suva is also confident that services growth will perk up again after four consecutive quarters of decrease. Additionally, he thinks the regulatory issues associated with its App Store in Europe are exaggerated.

While the December quarter is constrained by supply (China Covid closures impacting production), we believe demand for Apple’s products and services is likely to remain resilient throughout full year 2023.

The Citi analyst estimates that Apple will spend over $100 billion on shareholder returns in the upcoming year, which will help to raise its stock price.

He recommends buying Apple stock and sees an upside to $175 – more than a 30% increase from here.