Analyst Targets 80% Upside for Apple Stock

Plenty of AAPL bulls are still lingering on Wall Street

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is slightly lower this morning at $155.57. Since touching a record high of $233.47 on Oct. 3, the shares have shed one-third of their value, bottoming at $146.59 on Christmas Eve. Their 20-day and 50-day moving averages stand up at $166.04 and $187.48, respectively, further illustrating the FAANG stock's recent weakness. Some analysts are doubling down on the iPhone maker, though.

D.A. Davidson just reaffirmed its "buy" rating on AAPL shares, along with the brokerage firm's $280 price target -- representing a roughly 80% surge from current levels. The analysts there named a few different potential tailwinds for the tech giant, including its decision to assemble iPhones in India.

D.A. Davidson isn't alone in its bullishness for Apple, as Barron's called out the FAANG name's "attractive" valuation last week. In total, 14 brokerage firms recommend buying the stock.

Options data paints a fairly bullish picture still, too. Call buying has roughly doubled put buying in the last 10 days at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), and AAPL's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.72 is just 3 percentage points from an annual low. In other words, near-term speculators are more call-heavy than normal.