Apple Stock Gets Bull Notes Before Earnings

AAPL has added 31% year-to-date

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are up 0.2% at $207.92, after the tech giant received price-target hikes fromanalysts. The bull notes come just ahead of the company's earnings report, which is slated for after the market closes next Tuesday, April 30.

Late last night, Morgan Stanley raised its outlook, hiking its price target to $234 from $220. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs lifted its target to $182 from $140, but kept its "neutral" rating, expecting weak iPhone sales later in the year. Fourteen of 26 covering firms sport "buy" or better ratings on AAPL, with its average 12-month price target coming in at $199.27.

Apple stock has been a favorite of call options traders, with data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) showing a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.01, ranking in the 76th annual percentile. In other words, two calls have been purchased for every put during the past two weeks of trading.

On the charts AAPL has been climbing higher, the shares now just shy of the $210 level for the first time since mid-November. What's more, the security is now up 31% year-to-date, with recent support stemming from the 20-day moving average.