A busy week of earnings season and lots of news developments have us revising some of the price targets and ratings on the stocks in the Club’s portfolio. AAPL YTD mountain Apple YTD performance Apple (AAPL): We’re raising our price target to $185 per share from $175 in response to the strong quarter Thursday evening. Even in a tough macro environment, Apple was able to deliver record March quarter iPhone and Services sales while also growing its installed base to new highs. Inflation may have crunched the profits of many, but Apple’s gross margins expanded in the quarter and the next quarter’s outlook signaled upside as well. One of the big drivers of Apple’s improving gross margins is its Services business, which continues to thrive as Apple attaches more and more features to its devices. To top it all off, Apple increased its dividend and announced a $90 billion increase to its share repurchase authorization. LLY YTD mountain Eli Lilly YTD performance Eli Lilly (LLY): We’re increasing our price target on Eli Lilly again, this time to $460 per share from $430. Our new price target is in reaction to the positive Alzheimer’s drug trial data that was much better than what we expected. With the stage set for the possibility of full approval by the end of the year, Eli Lilly has made good on the development of two of the most valuable pipeline projects in company history. The other project, of course, is Mounjaro — the new type-2 diabetes treatment also being reviewed as a weight loss drug. We continue to believe Mounjaro has the potential of being one of the best-selling drugs of all time. EL YTD mountain Estee Lauder YTD performance Estee Lauder (EL): We’re lowering our price target on Estee Lauder to $260 per share from $300 following its disappointing earnings report , where management not only missed expectations but slashed the rest of its fiscal year outlook due to a slower-than-expected recovery in its travel retail business. It was shocking to see a company of this quality miss. We went back and looked at every quarter under CEO Fabrizio Freda and found only two times he’s missed the number – the Covid-challenged June 2020 quarter and this one. After this past week’s reset, we do not think this happens again. While Travel Retail has been slower to recover and it will take time for inventory to normalize, what we found encouraging was the growth in the rest of the business. Estee Lauder’s ex-travel retail in Asia grew 10%, and Mainland China sales grew low single digits organically with market share gains. Again, the last remaining piece of the recovery puzzle is travel retail, and it will require a little more patience. But we are confident this business will come back as international travel by Chinese consumers rebounds, and for that, we think the stock is a buy down here. HAL YTD mountain Halliburton YTD performance Halliburton (HAL): We are lowering our price target on this North American-focused oil services giant to $40 per…
Read More: We’re making five price target changes and one rating upgrade after a