Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the key and widely discussed companies on the American market. Since the beginning of the year, the company’s shares have grown by 15%.
On April 23, after the close of trading on the US stock exchanges, the corporation presented a report for the second quarter of the 2014 fiscal year, which turned out to be brilliant in many aspects and led to a growth of shares by more than 8% in one trading session. Positive news for investors was the increase in the buyback plan by $30 billion and the increase in quarterly dividends by 8% to $3.29 per share. The company also announced a 7-to-1 stock split, which will not only make the papers more liquid and accessible to investors, but may also allow them to be included in the Dow Jones index. In late summer or fall, Apple plans to introduce the long-awaited iPhone 6 with a wide screen, as well as the iWatch smart watch. The company recently announced the purchase of headphone and audio equipment manufacturer Beats Electronics, which launched the Beats Music music service, for $3 billion. The purchase will likely allow the company to combine listening to music on the iTunes Radio service with Beats Music and the iTunes Store online content store. This is important, since Apple’s music direction lags behind the latest trends.
In our recommendation after the report, we predicted that the shares would reach the $630 level, not excluding the possibility of growth to $650, the second level was reached on Friday. From a fundamental point of view, the shares are currently fairly valued, and we should expect a correction “after the fact”. The nearest support level for a decline is $82 (last year’s maximum), the quote at the close on June 6 was $92.22 (after the split).
