“Down more than 22% in 2013 to rest at $413.50, Apple Inc. nonetheless commands respect from Wall Street. (Currently, 29 of the 38 analysts following the stock rate it a ‘buy’ or better.) This morning — following news that the company is rolling out a new pay structure for its top executives — BMO upped its price target by $15 to $450, while maintaining a ‘market perform’ rating,” Beth Gaston reports for Schaeffer’s Investment Research.
“The options crowd has recently begun to display signs of skepticism, as evidenced by AAPL’s 10-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX),” Gaston reports. “Although the current reading of 0.71 reveals that calls are still being purchased to open at a faster pace than their put counterparts, the ratio itself is higher than 87% of the past year’s readings, suggesting that demand for long puts has been on the upswing during the past two weeks.”
Full article, with info about upgrades to AMD and Starbucks, here.