“Morningstar, the safety-first investment-research firm, recently added technology darling Apple to its exclusive five-star stock list,” Jake Lynch reports for TheStreet. “Chicago-based Morningstar covers more than 1,700 stocks and only 45 receive five-star rankings. That number has increased, quite a bit, in the past few weeks as the equity market has slid. Morningstar says Apple is now at an attractive discount price.”
“During the second quarter, Apple roughly doubled its operating income and boosted sales 83%. Such growth is remarkable, especially considering the company already has a market value of $290 billion. iPhone revenue surged 126%, Mac revenue climbed 32%, iTunes revenue increased 23%, software sales stretched 17% and peripherals sales advanced 23%. iPod sales declined 14%. The iPad, Apple’s latest disruptive-technology product, has no year-over-year comparison, but it delivered $2.3 billion of quarterly sales,” Lynch reports. “Put simply, business is booming.”
Lynch reports, “Morningstar has a fair-value target of $475 on the stock, suggesting a return of 52%. Unlike the sell-side, Morningstar doesn’t link its targets to a specific time frame. Piper Jaffray forecasts a 12-month advance to $554 and Credit Suisse predicts a rise to $500. Apple receives positive reviews, comprising “buy,” “outperform” and “overweight” rankings, from a disproportionate 91% of researchers in coverage.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David E.” for the heads up.]