Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares, although close to an all-time high, have only pushed higher by about 4% in just the past month. And the most recent short interest report showed the number of Apple shares short dropping to 39.12 million from the previous 40.31 million, a drop of about 3%.
Recently, Apple topped the list of companies buying back the most stock in 2017 with a staggering total of $33.7 billion. The next closest was GE, which was planning to buy back about $21 billion.
Apple has been largely popular in 2017, with the stock rising about 37.5% year to date. However, despite this incredible gain, it only puts this stock as the second best performing Dow stock after Boeing.
TrendForce recently released a report about Apple for the current quarter:
The updated 12-inch MacBook helped expanded MacBook shipments by 17.1% from the first quarter to 3.98 million units. TrendForce also anticipates a double-digit sequential growth for third-quarter MacBook shipments as Apple will focus on the MacBook Pro series during the year’s second half.
What TrendForce researchers did not mention is that MacBook prices are often higher than those of laptops made by rivals. For example, Dell sells a number of laptops for under $700. The basic MacBook is priced at $1,299. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is priced at $2,399. This means that Apple’s margins on its laptops are likely higher than its competition.
Shares of Apple closed Thursday at $159.27, with a consensus analyst price target of $168.81 and a 52-week range of $102.53 to $162.51.
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