Apple Trades at $319.70: Analysts Recommend Holding, Not Buying
Apple shares are trading at $319.70, prompting analysts to advise existing shareholders to hold onto their stock rather than buying more. The tech giant's valuation has increased significantly, with a forward P/E of 33 and a trailing P/E of 36. Despite delivering strong revenue growth in the past year, Apple underperformed the S&P 500 by over 10 percentage points in the last month.
Apple's recent run-up in price is attributed to its aggressive $100 billion buyback authorization, the iPhone 17 super-cycle launch, and a 9% to 11% revenue growth forecast for the September quarter. However, management expects supply constraints to increase significantly across iPhone, Mac, and iPad due to memory pricing issues.
The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 recently named his top 10 AI stocks, but Apple didn't make the cut. Insider disposals by the general counsel also took place at prices between $307 and $311. Existing shareholders with diversified portfolios may want to hold onto their shares, capturing the defensive quality of Apple's fortress balance sheet without chasing a stock that has already priced in most of the good news.