For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 16, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Research In Motion (RIMM) and Palm (PALM).

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Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Raising Price Target on Apple

Apple Inc. (AAPL) sold 5.2 million iPhones in the June quarter, representing a 626.0% unit growth over the year-ago quarter. In the current quarter the company released Snow Leopard, the latest upgrade to Apple’s OS X operating system. In addition, Apple announced new upgrades to its iPod digital media players. We continue to believe that Apple will outperform its peers given its strong iPhone sales and new product launches.

The company is currently benefiting from a positive mix shift to the higher-margin iPhones and iPod business from its traditional MP3 players, as a result of which management posted non-GAAP gross margin of 41.3% in the last quarter. We expect the company to post higher margins as a result of higher sales and the continued mix shift in the next several quarters.

However, Apple faces significant competition in all areas of its business from Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Research In Motion (RIMM) and Palm (PALM).

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