June 9, 2021: -Apple could hit a $3 trillion market cap in the year 2022, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who is bullying the tech giant.

The iPhone maker’s shares are decreasing about 5% year-to-date. Earlier this year, investors dumped the stocks of the company following a historic December quarter.

Apple is the most valuable company in the world, with a current market cap of nearly $2.1 trillion. It crossed the first trillion in 2018 and the $2 trillion mark in 2020. Analysts, which includes Ives, have previously talked about Apple’s roadmap to the record $3 trillion marks.

On Tuesday, “We think ultimately 12 to 18 months from now,” Ives told CNBC when asked about a possible timeline to the next milestone.

“If you look at the innovation, if you look at the supercycle playing out in the services business right now, I believe this is just sort of the next stage of growth,” Ives said, and also added that it would prove to skeptics that Apple remains focused on innovation.

In late April, Ives increased the price target of Apple from $175 a share to $185, which maintains an outperform rating on the stock. The shares of Apple closed at $125.90 per share in the regular trading hours on Monday.

Apple has been viewed as a hardware company for years while CEO Tim Cook pushed the narrative that the firm’s iOS operating system has a services ecosystem built around a base of more than one billion device users that’s a big part of its future.

But the mix of hardware and software is evolving, and in 2020, the tech giant received its most significant endorsement from Wall Street and investors.

Ives values the software services business of Apple at about $1 trillion at the moment and expects it to increase to about $1.5 trillion for the company’s market value to hit $3 trillion.

“They have put an iron fence near their install base, which will continue to monetize it, and the bears and skeptics will continue to doubt them,” he said.

He said Apple continues to “prove them wrong.” But, he added, “Which is why when I look around the corner, despite this digestion period, I see a $3 trillion market cap in the year 2022.”

At its Worldwide Developers Conference or WWDC, the company showed off a slew of new updates for Apple’s significant products on Monday. It included the iOS 15, the latest version of the iPhone operating system.

New iPhones are also expecting this later this year, while an Apple Car is also in the works.

Ives said that Apple is laying the foundation for the next stage of growth at the moment, where software and services play essential roles.