iPad Boosts Apple Stock to Another Record

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple(AAPL) stock is continuing on its winning streak from last week, hitting yet another record high in Monday trading.

Shares of Apple ticked as high as the $220.09 mark during the day, before slipping a tad in afternoon trading. It closed at $219.08.

This comes after Apple revealed its first television commercial for its iPad during the Academy Awards last night.

The stock reached a high last week when it was announced that the iPad is slated to hit stores on April 3.

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But Apple has other opportunities beyond its newest endeavor. According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who cited NPD data on PC sales, Apple Mac sales will continue to advance over the next several months.

"We expect the strong year-over-year growth in NPD data that we saw in January to continue in the month of February," he wrote in a note. "We believe this represents a buying opportunity ahead of NPD data for the month of February on March 15."

Munster has an overweight rating on the stock and a price target of $284.

Elsewhere in the tech sector, Research in Motion(RIMM) is surging after it was upgraded to outperform from market perform by BMO Capital Markets.

Analyst Tim Long cited improving demand, specifically of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and the Curve 8520, which are boosting RIM's revenue.

Research in Motion is also expected to benefit from the evolving smartphone landscape, even with increasing competition from Apple.

Shares of Research in Motion are gaining 5.6% to $73.40 in afternoon trading.

-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.

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