Apple seen leading more tech giants to 'pull the plug' on Russia
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For a growing number of tech bellwethers, Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine is providing a watershed moment whereby companies are putting humanity ahead of their business needs.
Already, the likes of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) Meta Platforms, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) have either suspended or canceled business operations and sales in Russia due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. And Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) move this week to ban the sales of its products in Russia is expected to only push the tech boycott tide even further.
That's the opinion of Wedbush analysts Dan Ives and John Katsingris, who on Thursday said to expect "more tech stalwarts to head down the same path and pull the plug on Russia" in the weeks ahead.
Apple (AAPL) doesn't break out how much business it does in Russia, but earlier this week, the company said it would cut off all online sales in, and product shipments to the country. And while it doesn't have any of its own retail stores in Russia, it does sell products in the country through third-party sites, partners and vendors.
But the public display of a company that's worth almost $3 trillion saying it won't do business in a country that is quickly becoming an international pariah will have an ongoing impact on how the tech industry decides to work with Russia in the future.
According to Ives and Katsingris, "Our estimates that if the US tech world pulled the plug on Russia it would have a 1% to 2% revenue impact in a worst case scenario." The analysts said that Wall Street "would gladly applaud" such a move "given the heartbreaking Ukraine invasion by Russia that is playing out in front of the world's eyes."
Because of the ongoing situation, and Russia's notoriety for cyber warfare, Ives and Katsingris said the cyber security sector is "poised to surge".
"There is a growing concern that massive cyber warfare could be on the near-term horizon," Ives and Katsingris said, adding that this "would certainly catalyze an increase in spending around preventing sophisticated Russian-based cyber attacks going after datacenters, networks, vulnerability points, and other highly sensitive data."
The Wedbush analysts said that the likes of Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW), Mandiant (NASDAQ:MNDT), Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) and CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:CRWD) stand to benefit from an expected increase in enterprise spending on network security. 
Adding to that sentiment was a recent assessment by Morgan Stanley analyst Hamza Fodderwala, who ranked Palo Alto Networks (PANW) as his top cybersecurity pick due to what he said were its "rock solid" fundamentals.