Time To Buy Apple!

I don't own Apple stock. But I do consume alot of Apples. 

We collectively own several Apple products in the household including an iPhone, 3 iPads, 2 Apple notebooks, and 4 iPods.  We also own 2 Blackberries, a Dell desktop and a Dell mini laptop--which is not very popular since the iPads entered the picture. Sure I miss Flash and a few other applications that make my personal iPad frustrating on occasion, but not enough to force my hand to replace my tablet with a RIM Playbook.

I firmly believe Apple stock is undervalued.

I have not been a bandwagon stock purchaser, and therefore Apple shares elude my portfolio.

According to Recognia, the little research program that comes with my brokerage account, Apple shares are undervalued by 67%. Wow. For comparison, Google shares are noted as undervalued by 72%., Microsoft by 20%, and Nokia--the major competitor for Apple's iPhone, is listed as overvalued by 17%.

Stephanie Link of The Street recently commented that Apple is the "It" product story of the world. Apple is all about applications. They have the most, boasting 65,000 and growing. They have a huge share of the cellphone and tablet market--in fact no other company comes close.

Apple has the uncanny knack of being able to create products that we never imagined needing and making them a "necessity".

Cueing Up for Apples

Ya, there are line ups for products, backlogs and some disgruntled customers frustrated at the lack of immediate gratification, but few walk away and most are content to wait. No one doubts Apple can meet demand. And certainly if they continue to produce the products consumers want, line ups will continue to form.

Recent history supports Apple's market dominance as always the first one out of the gate on new technology. Apple has alot of cash, great management and a strong research and development team.

Apple Looks Enticing Right Now

At the current price of $350 per share near it's 52 week high, Apple stock is still very attractive. Analyst estimates predict numbers between $375 and $450 for intermediate term stock growth and the Chinese market for Apple products is growing exponentially as they too ride the cultural move from laptops to tablets.

Looking at the Yahoo Finance technicals, RSI is neutral, the stock is trading above its 200 day MA, Slow Stochastic is ticking up and volume has been average but landing on the sell side of the pendulum since mid March.

So is it time to buy Apple?

Recognia produces several bullish signals of late: a gap up, price cross over 50 day MA, MACD and Slow Stochastics pointing in the right direction and good momentum. First target price is $365.28, an area of previous resistance, and when you add up the psychological factors, more than 90% growth year after year and the current technical indicators, I can't find a reason not to buy me some Apple.

As well, the US dollar is currently riding lower than our buck which gives me further incentive to take a position.

Analysts Love Apple

Most analysts consider Apple a strong buy or buy with only one analyst out of 54 listed on Yahoo Finance considering Apple a sell--who is this guy anyway? Perhaps he owns Nokia.

Apple beat the S & P 52-week gains by 41% (10.65% versus  31.61%) with 921.28 million shares outstanding, a few of which will be mine after the Easter holiday.

So, it's apple pie for Easter, and Apple shares when the markets reopen. 

Happy Easter and Happy Investing!

Disclosure: the author does not own shares of Apple, Nokia or Google as of publication.