Apple (AAPL) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Apple (AAPL) closed at $193.89 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.6% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.09%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.62%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of iPhones, iPads and other products had gained 1.4% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 0.35%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.08%.

AAPL will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect AAPL to post earnings of $2.10 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 10.26%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $53.46 billion, up 0.36% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $11.48 per share and revenue of $256.93 billion. These totals would mark changes of -3.61% and -3.26%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for AAPL. 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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 remained stagnant. AAPL is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, AAPL is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 16.79. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.48, which means AAPL is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, AAPL's PEG ratio is currently 1.63. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Computer - Mini computers stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.32 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Computer - Mini computers industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 54, which puts it in the top 22% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

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

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