Here’s What Analysts Had to Say about QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM), Apple Inc. (AAPL) & Other Stocks This Week

Although the sell-side can be unabashedly and mistakenly optimistic at times, many investors regard analysts as very knowledgeable market participants that can decide short term price action for many stocks.

Given those views, we have put together a list of the latest analyst commentary concerning several major tech stocks, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and one beleaguered healthcare stock, Mylan NV (NASDAQ:MYL). We have also scoured the data from the last round of 13F filings to determine what hedge funds and other investors we track think about the five stocks.

Through extensive research, we determined that imitating some of the picks of hedge funds and other institutional investors can help generate market-beating returns over the long run. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these investors, since they are usually less followed by the broader market and are less price-efficient. Our backtests that covered the period between 1999 and 2012, showed that following the 15 most popular small-caps among hedge funds can help a retail investor beat the market by an average of 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

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After the news broke that QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) was interested in buying NXP, many analysts expressed support for Qualcomm this week. Among them, Cowen analyst Timothy Arcuri hiked his price target to $74 per share from $62, estimating that a potential purchase of NXP at around $115 per share with debt, cash, and stock would be 20% accretive to Qualcomm. Rod Hall, a JPMorgan analyst, increased his price target to $70 from $63, also saying that the potential merger would help unlock value for long-term shareholders. Hall noted that Qualcomm has around $29 billion in cash overseas to facilitate the potential deal. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management inched up its stake in QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) by 2% in the second quarter to over 9.68 million shares at the end of June in .

Given that it is a buy-out candidate now, it isn’t a surprise that analysts were tripping over themselves to estimate how much NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) could ultimately sell for (initial reports have said the talks are for over $30 billion, which works out to over $95 per share). As mentioned previously, Cowen analyst Timothy Arcuri believes NXP could ultimately be sold for $115 per share (or around $13 per share above current levels) and still deliver value for Qualcomm shareholders. William Stein of SunTrust is a little bit more bullish, estimating that NXP could be bought for $124 per share using recent takeover valuations in the sector. As always, analyst commentary should be taken with a grain of salt as not everything is knowable. Of the around 749 funds that we track, 57 of them were long NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) at the end of the second quarter, up by five funds from the previous quarter.

Click next to see what analysts had to say about Amazon, Apple, and Mylan NV.

Count Robert Drbul, a tech analyst at Guggenheim, as the latest Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) bull. Drbul recently initiated coverage on the stock with a ‘Buy’ rating and a price target of $950. Drbul is optimistic on AWS, Amazon’s cloud infrastructure as a service, that has been growing rapidly lately and he believes Amazon will claim about a quarter of the U.S. e-commerce market by next year. There is more growth ahead as the e-commerce market is just a small fraction of the overall retail market in the United States and abroad. The smart money was for the most part bullish on Amazon in the second quarter (and rightly so). According to our data, 145 funds had a bullish position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) at the end of the second quarter, up by 12 funds from the previous quarter.

Despite its post iPhone-7 rally, Citi analyst Jim Suva thinks Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has more upside ahead. Citing store checks across the world, Suva believes iPhone 7 demand is strong and could help Apple achieve iPhone sales of 79.4 million units for the December quarter, versus the Street’s current estimate of just 75 million units. Due to his research, Suva raised his target price to $130 per share from the previous $120 and reiterated his ‘Buy’ rating on the tech giant. Although David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital trimmed its stake by 17% in the second quarter, the fund still held 6.8 million shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on June 30.

Although Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) is hogging the regulatory spotlight at the moment, Mylan NV (NASDAQ:MYL) shares still haven’t recovered yet, as they neared a 52 week low on Friday. Not surprisingly, Leering analyst Jason Gerberry became the latest analyst to trim estimates for the drug company, lowering his EpiPen sales estimate by 33% to 45% for the period of 2017-2021 and cutting his price target on the stock to $45 from $55 per share. However, Gerberry does retain an ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock. A total of 44 funds from our database owned shares of Mylan NV (NASDAQ:MYL) at the end of June, down by seven funds from the previous quarter.

Disclosure: none