Apple (AAPL) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Apple (AAPL) closed at $130.73, marking a +0.45% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500’s 0.7% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.56%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 7.5%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of iPhones, iPads and other products had lost 9.92% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector’s loss of 2.78% and the S&P 500’s loss of 0.94% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Apple as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Apple is projected to report earnings of $1.93 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 8.1%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $120.48 billion, down 2.8% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $6.19 per share and revenue of $404.08 billion. These totals would mark changes of +1.31% and +2.47%, respectively, from last 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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.45% lower. Apple is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Apple currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.02. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 8.56, which means Apple is trading at a premium to the group.

We can also see that AAPL currently has a PEG ratio of 1.68. 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. The Computer – Mini computers industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.41 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 226, putting it in the bottom 11% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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