Apple Shares Press Toward All-Time High After 12% Rise This Week

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 3:28AM EST · Published Sep 17, 9:35AM EDT

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Apple Shares Press Toward All-Time High After 12% Rise This Week — © Thinkstock

Shares of the maker of iPhones and Apple Watches rose 12.5% this past week to about $115. The stock has a reasonable chance to return to its all-time high if a few things go the company’s way.

From a 24/7 Wall St. analysis:

The crush of orders for the iPhone 7 has driven Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares to $115 from $90 in early May. It is now within striking range of its all-time high of just over $132 set on May 18 of last year.

All the good news about the iPhone 7 may not be out. Apple said it will not disclose early unit sales. That may change, or clever analysts may make precise estimates.

There is also a fair argument that Apple benefits from the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 woes.

Perhaps most important, Apple’s next set of earnings are published on October 25. Wall Street speculation will begin in earnest as analysts jockey their numbers for precision. Many will be revised higher based on early iPhone 7 sales.

Finally, Apple’s earnings themselves will show early iPhone sales. And its guidance, always light, may anticipate a strong holiday. That by itself could lift shares toward a new record.

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And Apple’s shares also were upgraded this week:

Apple … has been winning as the iPhone 7 pre-orders have been very strong. Credit Suisse raised its estimates based on strong pre-sale orders, reiterating its Outperform rating and its $150 price target. Shares closed up 3.6% at $111.83 on Wednesday and were up 1.6% more at $113.60 Thursday morning. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $89.47 to $123.82, and the consensus analyst price target is $123.66.

That $150 price target would put Apple shares well above its all-time high.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.