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Assessing Apple (AAPL) Stock At New All-Time High

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Shares of Apple (AAPL - Free Report) hit a new all-time high on Monday after the tech giant’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off in San Jose, California. This is a great time for investors to dive into some of Apple’s current fundamentals to see if its stock might be worth buying as the week-long extravaganza begins.

Apple saw its stock price climb as high as 1.7% to hit $193.42 share on Monday, before it slipped slightly to close at $191.83 per share. The iPhone giant joined fellow tech powers Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) , which both closed at brand new all-time highs on Monday (also read: Why Microsoft's GitHub Acquisition Matters).

This year’s conference comes at an interesting time for the tech industry as more and more people have become concerned about the outsized impact that a select few companies have on people’s lives. Facebook’s recent push to get back to its family and friends-update roots is just the start. Meanwhile, Apple highlighted its initiatives to help people curb and limit app usage on iPhones and iPads on the very first day of WWDC 2018.

Price Performance

Now that we have highlighted Apple’s Monday movement that helped push the company’s market cap to $942.52 billion, it’s time to look at some more of its current fundamentals.

Shares of Apple have skyrocketed 623% over the last 10 years, outpacing the S&P 500’s 114% surge. Over the last five years, Apple stock has climbed 202% against the index’s 74% gain. Apple’s growth looks just as impressive even as we narrow the scope a little, with Apple’s stock price up nearly 95% over the last two years.

 

Investors will notice that Apple stock has also climbed over 13% since the start of the year, which doesn’t even include Monday’s gains. However, this recent price movement might make Apple stock look just a tad pricey to some investors.  

Valuation

Coming into Monday, Apple stock was trading at 15.4X forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimates. Over the last year, Apple has traded as high as 17.2X, with a one-year median of 14.9X. Apple stock has also traded as low as 13.2X during this time period, yet investors should note that Apple stock is trading at a discount to the S&P 500’s 16.9X.

Clearly, Apple stock has presented better value at different times throughout the last year. Still, Apple appears to offer solid value if we go back a little further.

 

Over the last decade, Apple stock has traded as high as 30.8X forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimates. Therefore, it is not much of a stretch to say that Apple’s valuation is far from stretched at this time and remains attractive compared to the S&P while remaining relatively in line with its year-long median.

Growth Outlook

The last thing we will touch on are Apple’s current growth projections. Apple’s quarterly revenues are projected to pop by 15.3% from the year-ago period to hit $52.37 billion, based on our current Zacks Consensus Estimates. The iPhone company’s full-year revenues are expected to touch $260.18 million, which would mark a 13.5% climb. Both of these are pretty impressive for a company that is set to pull in more than one-quarter of a trillion dollars this year.

Moving onto Apple’s bottom line estimates—which directly impact its current forward P/E—the company’s adjusted quarterly earnings are projected to reach $2.19 per share, representing a nearly 31% expansion. For the year, Apple’s adjusted earnings are expected to surge by 25% to hit $11.43 per share.

Apple is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and sports “B” grades for Value, Growth, and Momentum in our Style Scores system. With all that said, investors should have enough basic information to help determine if Apple stock looks attractive to them at this moment.

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