
Apple Can Return to $100, Plus Jim Cramer's View
Is Apple (AAPL) - Get Report stock heading back above $100 per share? It chart looks positive thanks to Apple stock climbing about 5% over the past two weeks. This helped the iPhone maker reach its 20-day and 50-day moving averages.
Shares are currently at $97, but they can rise above $100 if the company's earnings are not as bad as feared, and if there is excitement about its coming iPhone models in the second half of the year.
TheStreet's Jim Cramer owns Apple for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust. In a recent note he and AAP Research Manager Jack Mohr said they are "cautiously optimistic that shares could re-rate higher in anticipation."
Why? "After getting past what has proven to be a historically difficult first half of the year in terms of iPhone 6 sales, we expect the company to benefit from easier year-over-year comparisons in the first half of 2017," they wrote.
Then again, Cramer has long said you own Apple, not trade it. "We are in the name for the long term, however, and do not intend to trade around short-term vicissitudes. We reiterate our $130 long-term price target," they wrote.
Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer'sAction Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.
Not everyone is so bullish. There hasn't been much reason to buy the stock. Apple's average daily volume has been weak. The stock has averaged almost 40 million shares in the trailing three months. Only once in the past six sessions has the stock broken above 30 million shares traded. This means investors remain broadly ambivalent about Apple's growth prospects.
As for the stock's technical feature, here's its chart courtesy of TradingView.
The stock has fallen 6.5% since the company reported its second-quarter results on April 26, are now down 7.9% so far on the year, compared with a 4.56% rise in the S&P 500 (SPX) .
There are two ways to assess where Apple is and where it may go. From the chart you can see the stock has declined 4.8% since Apple shares reached a high of $101.89 on June 6. On the glass "half-full" side, the shares have risen about 8.4% from their 52-week low of $89.47 reached in May. Where's the stock going next? Let's consider the shares have a consensus buy rating and an average analysts price target of $120, suggesting a 24% rise from Monday's close.
From a technical perspective, the rise back above the 20-day (blue line -- $95.62) and 50-day (pink line -- $95.79) averages is more important since it also creates a new support level for the stock at around $96 per share. In other words, it would be a mistake to sell your Apple shares now. The 100-day average (yellow line -- $100.01), or about 3% higher, is now the next target.
Apple will report fiscal third-quarter 2016 results on July 26 after the closing bell. If the company can surprise Wall Street with a beat and "less bad" guidance, the stock should reclaim the $100 level, at which point $105 to $107, or about 10% higher, becomes the next target heading into the new iPhone refresh cycle in September.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.










