iPhone 8 To Be Biggest Contributor To Apple’s Net Worth, To Reach $824B By 2017-End: Report

Apple’s quarterly earnings report for the first quarter of 2017 will be published on May 2. The quarter is expected to be a slow one, since the early demand for the iPhone 7 has slowed pace. However, it doesn’t mean that 2017 would be a bad year for the company.

Read: Apple iPhone 8: Device Not Fully Made In China; Will Have South Korean Parts, Report Says

Canada-based investment bank RBC Capital Markets, Monday hiked its 12-month share price target for the company from $155 to $157, which would increase the company’s market capitalization from the $740 billion current on to $824 billion. The company’s stock already hit a record high of $144.77 on April 4. While RBC says that the company’s third-quarter outlook might come “modestly below estimates,” the company’s launch of its 2017 iPhone 8 and the anticipation around it will push it valuation further in the fourth quarter.

RBC analyst Amit Dayanani told investors in a note Monday that the market consensus for Apple’s March Quarter is at $53.9 billion in revenue and earnings of $2.02 per share. This is way higher than the company’s March 2016 quarter, when the revenue fell to $50.6 billion. March is typically the month when iPhone sales decline year-on-year.

Apple was recently reported to have been facing troubles with embedding a fingerprint sensor under its OLED display for iPhone 8. But the company is expected to endow the device with a multi-sensor camera, a 10nm processor, an edge-to-edge display and an improved Siri voice assistant.

Read: Apple Could Team Up With Foxconn To Bid For Major Stake In Toshiba Chip Unit

Apart from the upcoming device, the company has much else on its plate — it is one of the bidders of Toshiba NAND flash memory and is expected to start making its own processors going forward. It also recently opened its spaceship campus in Apple Park this month.