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Apple (AAPL) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Apple (AAPL - Free Report) closed at $156.90, marking a +1.57% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.13%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.07%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of iPhones, iPads and other products had lost 7.81% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 11.27%, while the S&P 500 lost 7.59%.

Apple will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Apple is projected to report earnings of $1.26 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 1.61%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $88.09 billion, up 5.68% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.11 per share and revenue of $392.28 billion, which would represent changes of +8.91% and +7.23%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Apple. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.04% higher. Apple is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, Apple is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 25.3. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 6.6, which means Apple is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, AAPL's PEG ratio is currently 2. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Computer - Mini computers stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.41 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Computer - Mini computers industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 182, putting it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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