He hasn't really liked Apple since early 2015, but high-profile tech investor Daniel Niles said Thursday it is now his "favorite" play.
"That's the one that will help really drive the market and if you look at it, the stock is down 15 percent from its level really back in that early 2015 time period," the founding partner of AlphaOne Capital Partners said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell."
Apple is also the most valuable company in the market right now, he added.
Niles believes there are three drivers for the stock. For one, he thinks Apple's revenue guidance for September should be easy to achieve.
"If you back out the fact that they burn 3.6 billion in channel inventory, they only really need to grow revenues about 1 percent sequentially. Over the last four years, it's been 6 to 7 percent that they've averaged in September," he said.
Second, carriers have gone back to subsiding iPhones and he believes that will drive a lot of upgrades.
Lastly, the valuation is great, Niles said.
"Apple gets a nice combination of defense with a nice, big yield."
Disclosure: Alpha One Capital Partners owns shares of Apple.