Millennial investors are gobbling up shares of Apple ahead of earnings (AAPL)

pulse

May 1, 2018 2:14 PM

Data from the brokerage app Robinhood shows younger stock traders are buying shares of the company 52% more than they were selling.

Ahead of the report, millennial investors were buying shares 52% more than they were selling, according to Robinhood data.

Millennial investors seem to be expecting an post-earnings pop for Apple.

Data from stock-trading app Robinhood, whose users tend to skew much younger than traditional brokerages, show investors are snapping up shares of the tech giant 52% more than they are selling ahead of its earnings report after the closing bell Tuesday.

"AAPL significantly plunged since chip provider TSM announced disappointing earnings , blaming weak demand for an expensive smartphone," Sahill Poddar, the app's data scientist, told Business Insider in an email. "This may have caused increased buying activity as investors remained optimistic, and took advantage of a lower stock price.”

Some Wall Street analysts also downgraded their iPhone forecasts ahead of Tuesday's earnings report. Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty downgraded the stock earlier this month, citing weakening demand in China.

"The bar may not have been set low enough," Wedbush senior trader Joel Kulina told Reuters of Wall Street's declining expectations for iPhone shipments. "There's still no visibility, and that's going to keep a lot of money on the sidelines."

Apple has long been the most held stock on Robinhood.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg expect the tech giant to report earnings of $2.64 a share on revenue of $60.87 billion.

The stock is down 3.79% so far in 2018.

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