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Apple Hits 52-Week High on Rising Anticipation for iPhone 6

Shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) reached a new 52-week high of $101.09 on Aug 20, 2014. The bullish run reflects the positive outlook for the upcoming iPhone 6.

The closing price of Apple on Jul 7 was $100.57, representing a strong one-year return of about 40.1% and a year-to-date return of about 27.3%. The S&P 500 jumped 20.9% and 8.4%, respectively, during the same period. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months stands at approximately 53.459K.

Apple delivered a positive average earnings surprise of 6.5% over the past four quarters. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has a market cap of $606.2 billion and a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 12.9%.

Key Growth Catalysts

The upcoming iPhone 6 is expected to drive growth for the company. Apple is expected to launch a big screen iPhone, which will help it to counter intensifying competition from Samsung as well as low-priced Asian handset makers.

In the recently concluded third-quarter 2014, iPhone unit sales increased 13% year over year to 35.20 million. Revenues climbed 9% from the year-ago quarter to $19.75 billion.

Apple experienced strong iPhone sales (up 55% year over year) in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries during the quarter. Apple’s partnership with China Mobile (CHL) positively impacted results in Greater China. iPhone adoption continues to remain strong among enterprises such as Medtronic and Nestle.

Although iPad reported a dismal quarter, the upcoming iPad Air 2 will drive unit sales. We believe that the availability of Microsoft (MSFT) Office and the partnership with International Business Machines (IBM) will boost iPad adoption among enterprises over the long haul.

Apple is also rumored to launch its much-awaited iWatch in Oct 2014. Per sources, the company expects to ship about 50 million units within the first year from its date of release.

Estimate Revision

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2014 increased a penny to $6.31 per share over the past 7 days. The earnings estimate for fiscal 2015 also increased a couple of cents to $6.93 over the same period.

Read the Full Research Report on AAPL
Read the Full Research Report on MSFT
Read the Full Research Report on IBM
Read the Full Research Report on CHL


Zacks Investment Research

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