Needham analyst Laura Martin upgraded her rating on Apple Inc. shares to "strong buy" from "buy," TheFly.com reported March 21.

Martin, who raised her price target on Apple stock to $225 from $180, said the company has five types of "network effects," including hardware-based direct network effects. The analyst believes these "strong network" effects makes Apple "most likely to prevail in a direct competition between FAANG [Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google] ecosystems."

The tech giant is expected to unveil a new streaming TV service and a bundled subscription Apple News offering at a March 25 event.