One Reason Why Apple (AAPL) Stock is Higher Today

Apple (AAPL) stock is increasing on Thursday afternoon as Drexel Hamilton said its ‘Apple Monitor’ delivered a better-than-seasonal performance for the month of June.
By Kaya Yurieff ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Apple (AAPL) - Get Report are up 0.5% to $96.01 on Thursday afternoon as Drexel Hamilton said its "Apple Monitor" delivered a better-than-seasonal performance for the month of June.

The gauge tracks suppliers of Apple, Barron's noted.

"All of the companies in our Apple Monitor have reported June sales and the performance was better than historical averages. With the iPhone 7 supply chain starting to ramp, we expect MoM sales growth to continue this summer," the firm wrote in an analyst note earlier today.

June sales for its Apple Monitor increased by nearly 2% month-over-month and were better than the average decline of almost 3% over the past eleven years, the firm said.

Due to the increased seasonality around the iPhone, June sales over the past five years for the firm's Apple Monitor have declined by an average of 6%.

"That said, Apple's June quarter revenue outlook is well below historical seasonality and softer than the performance experienced in the June quarter of 2015," Drexel Hamilton noted.

But "given the rising macro concerns and another round of 'gloom and doom' circling Apple, the stock has come under more pressure over the past month and we believe represents an attractive buying opportunity," the firm added.

Drexel Hamilton has a "buy" rating and $185 price target on Apple stock.

(Apple is a core holding of Jim Cramer's charitable trust Action Alerts PLUS. See all of his holding with a free trial here.)

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "Buy" rating with a score of B on the stock.

The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity and expanding profit margins. 

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: AAPL

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