Raymond James, upping Apple (AAPL)

8:06 AM "Sentiment is bad. Make that horrible," says Raymond James, upping Apple (AAPL) to Strong Buy from Buy. The team says the company stands to benefit from the new battle in smartphones - putting smartphone chipsets into things like cars, TVs, and appliances. Shares +1.3% premarket.Read comments

AAPL price at time of publication: $396.53.         

Bill Maurer
Last week, I discussed how Apple (AAPL) was about a month away from its next earnings report. In the article, I cautioned investors about the potential for analysts getting bearish ahead of the report. Given what we had seen in recent quarters, I was worried that Apple analysts would cut their price targets, and either fiscal Q3 or Q4 (or both) estimates leading into Apple's report. We've seen how this negativity in the past has hurt Apple's stock, and so I warned investors to be careful.