Benzinga - by Piero Cingari, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares are currently riding a spectacular rally, signaling the market’s enthusiastic response to the quarterly report from the Cupertino-based tech giant.
Friday’s surge amounted to over 7%, marking its strongest single-day performance since November 2022, when Apple saw an increase of over 8%.
This remarkable uptick has led to a significant technical milestone: Apple has now surpassed the barrier of its 200-day moving average, a feat it hadn’t achieved since the end of January 2024.
Chart: Apple Set For Best 1-Day Performance Since November 2022
What Happened Apple reported a marginal double beat last quarter, with sales at $90.75 billion (vs. $90.37 billion expected) and earnings-per-share (EPS) of $1.53 (versus the $1.50 expected).
The primary driver behind the surge was unveiling a significant share buyback program, valued at $110 billion, marking the largest one ever implemented by a company.
The iPhone maker has also approved a cash dividend of $0.25 per share.
Analyst recommendations have seen adjustments, with JP Morgan Chase & Co. elevating Apple’s 12-month price target from $210 to $225, affirming an Overweight rating.
Barclays, on the other hand, increased the price target from $158 to $164 but retained an Underperform rating. Rosenblatt revised its price target upward from $189 to $196 while maintaining a Neutral rating.
Read Also: Steve Jobs Wasn’t A Fan, But Apple’s Record Stock Buyback Is So Massive It Dwarfs Valuations Of Boeing, Starbucks, eBay And 415 Other S&P 500 Companies
Apple Technical Analysis: $191 Is Next Resistance Before The Retest At $200 The momentum, as indicated by the Relative Strength Index (RSI), now suggests a prevalence of bullish strength, with the RSI rising to its highest level since late December 2023.
Approaching overbought territory is within reach, but this shouldn’t raise significant concern for bulls unless extreme overbought values appear. In fact, Apple traded at or near overbought levels for several weeks in November 2023, during which the stock price continued to climb.
Looking at the Fibonacci trend retracement from the lows of April 19, 2024, to the highs of Dec. 14, 2023, today’s session saw Apple surpass the 50% retracement mark. This could indeed indicate a reversal of the bearish trend that has been in place for over five months, increasing the likelihood of a potential retest of the all-time high of $199.37 reached in December.
Before reaching that level, the next resistance to overcome is $191.76, which corresponds to the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level.
Chart: Apple Breaks 200DMA
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Photo: Shutterstock
Latest Ratings for AAPL
| Mar 2022 | Barclays | Maintains | Equal-Weight | |
| Feb 2022 | Tigress Financial | Maintains | Strong Buy | |
| Jan 2022 | Credit Suisse | Maintains | Neutral |
View the Latest Analyst Ratings
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