Apple (AAPL) closed the most recent trading day at $128.14, moving +1.17% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500’s daily loss of 0.39%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.12%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.1%.
Coming into today, shares of the maker of iPhones, iPads and other products had gained 6.76% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 7.06%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.06%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AAPL as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect AAPL to post earnings of $1.39 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 11.2%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $102.61 billion, up 11.75% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.03 per share and revenue of $320.73 billion. These totals would mark changes of +22.87% and +16.83%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for AAPL. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company’s business outlook.
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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.29% higher. AAPL currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note AAPL’s current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 31.47. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 9.94, so we one might conclude that AAPL is trading at a premium comparatively.
Also, we should mention that AAPL has a PEG ratio of 2.74. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company’s expected earnings growth rate into account. AAPL’s industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.69 as of yesterday’s close.
The Computer – Mini computers industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 43, putting it in the top 17% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
