Technology

3 Tech Stocks to Buy That Are Benefiting From Big Apple Sales

Lee Jackson

Published: October 30, 2015 9:50 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:44 pm

If there is one company that continues to plow ahead and control their world it’s Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Another positive quarter helped the stock to jump, and it’s now up almost 30% from the intra-day low it hit on August 24. Apple isn’t the only winner with the big sales and earnings report; the vendors who supply the tech behemoth are also cashing in. A new research report from RBC highlights the companies that may be among the biggest winners.

RBC points out that the recent positive earnings report and guidance from Apple are a modest positive for the company’s supply chain vendors and should help to calm investor concerns that iPhone units can continue to grow in the iPhone 6s cycle. In fact, RBC sees the company shipping 75 million units in the fourth quarter and 62 million in the first quarter of 2016.

Here are three companies RBC sees as benefiting from the positive Apple third-quarter report, and all three are rated Outperform at RBC

Amphenol

Amphenol Corp. (NYSE: APH) is the top pick at RBC, which sees the company benefiting from the Apple strength as about 10% of total sales are to Apple, mainly in iPhone and iPad antenna and connectors. Amphenol is one of the world’s largest designers, manufacturers and marketers of electrical, electronic and fiber optic connectors, interconnect systems, antennas, sensors and sensor-based products and coaxial and high-speed specialty cable. It designs, manufactures and assembles its products at facilities in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa and sells its products through its own global sales force, independent representatives and a global network of electronics distributors.

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The RBC team sees the company also enjoying improving sales to Cisco. In fact they have modeled the IT and data communications business to grow as a result of the Cisco guidance. That is in addition to upside for fourth-quarter growth as a result of the strong Apple sales.

Amphenol investors are paid a small 1.03% dividend. RBC has a $60 target price on the stock. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $58. Shares closed trading on Thursday at $54.40.
Analog Devices

This stock has had a big run and looks poised to go higher. Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ADI) is a leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processing integrated circuits for use in industrial, automotive, consumer and communication markets worldwide. It offers signal processing products that convert, condition and process real-world phenomena, such as temperature, pressure, sound, light, speed and motion, into electrical signals.

The company has been awarded a nice a product slot in the iPhone as it supplies the processors that enable 3D Touch in Apple products. The company noted that one customer accounted for around 10% of revenues last quarter, and RBC thinks that would be Apple. Analog Devices is reported to be the sole supplier for the 3D touch processor to Apple.

Analog Devices investors receive a 2.6% dividend. The $70 RBC price target is higher than the consensus target of $67.59. The stock closed most recently at $59.98.

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Avago

This company made big headlines with a blockbuster buyout of chip giant Broadcom earlier this year. Avago Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was originally a part of Hewlett-Packard and gets a huge chunk of its business from Apple and Samsung. It is a big provider in the cloud/hyperscale data center and networking arena. In fact, Avago recently announced it will demonstrate its latest optical transceiver technologies for next generation data center and enterprise storage applications. As data center networks transition to 100G speeds to support higher bandwidth demands, technical challenges emerge across various levels of the network from storage endpoints to servers to top-of-rack and core switches.

Avago produces radio frequency (RF) front-end for LTE-enabled Apple products. The RBC team estimates that the company does 15% of its total business with Apple. They also estimate that Avago has between a 13% and 17% revenue exposure to Apple in the wireless communications segment, which was guided up more than 10% quarter over quarter for the third quarter.

RBC has a $150 price target, but the consensus target is $162.81. Shares closed on Thursday at $120.09.

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While all these companies have a solid business position as vendor to Apple, they also have very solid overall fundamentals going forward. They are probably best suited for aggressive growth accounts looking to add tech exposure.