DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte kept his Buy rating and $265 price target on Apple (AAPL) after its product re-fresh yesterday, saying the event increases his confidence in the company "meeting or exceeding" consensus for sales in the near term. The analyst believes that the starting price points for the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max should boost Apple's average selling prices and allow the company to "bear financial fruit" of the updated lineup without having to increase unit sales. As part of his broader research note, Forte also keeps his Neutral rating on Fitbit (FIT), saying the cost-conscious consumers will still purchase its Versa smartwatch rather than opt for the more expensive Apple Watch. The analyst is also positive on Zagg (ZAGG), maintaining his Buy rating and $20 price target on expectation that consumers will want to protect their expensive smartwatch products with the company's screen protectors and cases.

Welcome to "Fly Insider," The Fly's weekly recap of notable insider stock transactionsNOTABLE INSIDER PURCHASES: Significant insider purchases reported in the prior week from April 15 through April 19 include:Chairman of Ashford (AINC) Montgomery Bennett purchased 200,000 shares of company stock at $4. 91 per share... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Apple quietly acquired Paris-based AI startup Datakalab on December 17, Challenges' David Pargamin reports. The terms of the transaction could not be learned, but European Commission has been notified of the deal, the author notes. Reference Link

Friday's total option volume of 56.7 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 6.01 million calls and 5.28 million puts. NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 50k Lyft (LYFT) May-24 20 calls, 44k Energy Transfer (ET) 4/26 weekly 16.5 calls, 43k Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Sep-24 41 calls, 23k Tesla (TSLA) 4/26 weekly 162.5 calls and 21k Papa John's (PZZA) Jun-24 57.5 puts.

"Box Office Battle" is The Fly's weekly roundup of what movies topped the weekend's box office. A24’s “Civil War”... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

The promise of AI has already driven a massive market rally. The irony is that Apple (AAPL), the company with more context about our lives than any other, has been left behind, Alex Eule writes in this week's edition of Barron's. Unlike Big Tech rivals Meta (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL), or the start-up OpenAI, it has yet to create its own large-language model. The switch to AI, to be sure, is more complex than making a larger-screen phone. But Apple's dominance hasn't changed. And that puts it at the center of any shift - real or artificial, the author says. Reference Link