Analysts Chime in On This Week’s Trending Stocks

After falling sharply yesterday, the markets are relatively quiet today, as all three major index futures are moderately in the red. Among the stocks that traders and analysts are watching today are several major tech names, as well as one consumer staple and an industrial that just reported earnings.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what analysts have said about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA), Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) this week and check out the hedge fund sentiment towards each stock to see what clues their trading activity could offer investors.

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in the spotlight today after Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski said that she expects Apple to “beat and raise” for the upcoming quarter due to strong iPhone 7 demand. According to Jankowski’s research, demand for the new phone is ahead of expectations, and the recent Samsung Note fiasco will likely only help Apple’s numbers going forward. The analyst estimates that Apple will sell 45.6 million iPhone units during the September quarter, 1 million more than her previous estimate, and well above the Street’s consensus of 44.5 million. She also estimates that the tech giant will sell 78.1 million units in the December quarter, 2 million higher than her previous estimate, and also ahead of the Street’s average of 75.5 million. Jankowski has a ‘Buy’ rating and a $124 price target on Apple shares. Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management raised its Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stake by 1% during the third quarter to 11.37 million shares at the end of September.

Canaccord’s Michael Walkley became the latest analyst to give the thumbs up to QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), as he hiked his price target on the stock to $75 from $70 and reiterated his ‘Buy’ rating on it. Although the recent Galaxy Note fallout could lower Qualcomm’s MSM shipment numbers for the December and March quarters, the analyst believes that the Street’s QTL estimates are too conservative. Walkley also believes that a potential NXP acquisition would be strongly accretive. Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 48 were long shares of QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) at the end of June, down by 11 funds from the end of March.

On the next page we’ll find out what analysts have had to say about Alcoa, Procter & Gamble, and Amazon this week.