What Wall Street is saying about Apple's developer conference

Yesterday was the start of Apple Inc.'s annual Worldwide Developer Conference, and Wall Street analysts seemed to emerge pretty optimisticon the changes that were announced to the company's products.

While new devicesare not typically introducedat this event, there are a wave of software updates. This year thetech giant is announcingfaster loading times for apps on the Apple Watch, a redesign for music, Apple Pay availability on the web and a number of changes to its messaging app, among other things.

Despite having hada tough year, with the stock losing almost a quarter of its valueoverthe past 12-months, Wall Street remains bullish with only twoanalysts calling the stock a sell and 42 recommending it as a buy.

Here's what some of them had to say after the first day of the conference.

Piper Jaffray Companies'Gene Munstersaid that the event was "largely incremental and a warm-up" for the fall, when Apple is expected to release new products. However, these changes are important, as Munster saysthey will helpApple stay ahead of the competition in terms ofhardware and software. He has an overweight rating and price target of $153.

Drexel Hamilton LLC'sBrian J. Whitewas very bullish coming out of the event, saying in his updated research that these changes will not only keep Apple edge pastits peersbut make it muchharderfor others to catch up as well. "We find it virtually impossible for Android-based competitors to ever create a digital matrix that rivals 'Planet Apple.'" He has a outperform rating and price target of $185.

Bmo Capital Markets' Ltd.'s Tim Longcalled the announcementsa"positive step" for strength inApple's ecosystem. He was most impressed by the Apple Watch improvements. He also rates the stock outperform, and has aprice target of$118.

RBC Capital Markets' Amit Daryananisaid the biggest takeaways were Siri's integration with more platforms, Apple Pay on the web, the announcement of 15 million paying Apple Music subscribers and letting third-party developers have access to some of Apple's products including Maps and messaging. RBC also has an outperform rating with a price target of $120.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'sRod Hallsaid he was impressed with the updates, but doesn't expect them to have any impact on Apple's earnings in the near term. He has anoverweight recommendation on the stock, with a price target of $125.

Sanford C Bernstein & Co.'sToni Sacconaghisaid many of the announcements were expected given the efficiency of the "Apple blog-o-sphere," but added that these changes were a step in the right direction for the firm."Many of Apple's announcements appeared to be playing catch-up versus competitive offerings, orwere attempts to close the gap on shortcomings with existing Apple offerings. That said, whatstruck us was a notably improved level of software and services integration within and acrossApple's hardware products, which we believe will genuinely improve the Apple user experienceand strengthen platform loyalty (or at a minimum, mitigate defection)." He remains overweight the stock and has a price target of $135.

Raymond James & Associates Inc.'s Tavis McCourt and Mike Kobanwere impressed with the growth in Apple Music subscribers as well as the faster loading times for apps on the Apple Watch. They kept their market perform rating anddid not give a price target.

Cowen & Co LLC’s Timothy Arcurisaid the updated software “deepens and broadens” the Apple ecosystem. “With the introduction of new versions for all four of its operating systems, WWDC highlighted even more seamless integration across AAPL devices/platforms to furtherbolster the allure/stickiness of the ecosystem.” He has an outperform rating and price target of $125.

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