Apple Hits New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade (AAPL)
Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after
Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to a buy rating, StockRatingsNetwork.com reports. The stock traded
as high as $630.61 and last traded at $629.85, with a volume of 6,795,325 shares traded. The stock had
previously closed at $624.01.
The analysts wrote, “Our interest in Apple now is primarily driven by the upgrade cycle that, in the United
States, may be improving given some changes that they’ve made in how they’re selling phones in the
market,” BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk told Benzinga. “That should be a primary driver to help earnings
growth.” According to Piecyk, Apple had previously implemented some policies that restricted upgrades.
This inadvertently encouraged customers to hold off on buying a new iPhone for at least two years.
“They’ve kind of processed through those policies now,” said Piecyk. “And now a lot of the sales of phones
to customers is on phone leasing programs, which enables the customer to exit the two-year commitment
that they’ve made in order to buy phones on a more frequent basis.” Related: Is Apple’s Smart Home
Concept Another False Rumor? Going ‘Home’ Apple will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference
next week in San Francisco. On its conference website, the Mac maker tells developers to “write the code”
and “change the world.” But if the rumors are true, it could be Apple that changes the world. The Cupertino,
California-based tech giant is rumored to be working on a smart home platform, which is thought to be the
focus of next week’s event. “You could have some new product launches [in the pipeline],” said Piecyk.
“There’s certainly plenty of opportunities that exist, whether it’s payments or smart homes or watches or all
the stuff that we love to read about. As far as a smart home, I have no idea. I look forward to what they have
to say next week.”
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