Now, in the months leading up to a possible recession, investing patterns that are driving market movements are key to understanding investor psychology. For that reason, we dove into October’s Buy and Sell transactions of the 579,351 investors who hold a TipRanks Smart Portfolio.
October ended fairly positively for the stock market, which benefited from upbeat quarterly earnings from many major companies. However, a few large companies included concerning trends in their outlooks, leading to a nagging worry at the back of everyone’s minds that a recession might be inevitable.
Most Bought Stocks
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) remained the most bought stock in October. Meanwhile, Nio (NASDAQ:NIO), Alphabet Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) found their way into the top 10 most bought stocks of the month. These three stocks displaced Ford (NYSE:F), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) from September’s list.
With a strong and loyal customer base and proven technological prowess, Apple is forging a solid path to newer areas with positive growth trends, such as the metaverse and electric vehicles. This apart, the commitment to return cash to shareholders via dividends and repurchases gives investors another reason to cheer for Apple.
Despite the headwinds that are taking a toll on Apple, investors and analysts alike have faith in the company’s longer-term opportunities. Moreover, despite the setbacks, the iPhone maker delivered solid fourth-quarter Fiscal 2022 results.
Is Apple Stock a Buy or Sell Now?
Recently, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani expressed his optimism about Apple’s upbeat results amid a slew of weak big-tech earnings. The analyst feels that despite investors being very emotional right now, eventually, they will look at the “durability of demand beyond the December quarter and the impact from macro not just on iPhones but also services.”
Daryanani reiterated a Buy rating on Apple stock and a price target of $190.
Echoing Daryanani’s views was the Wall Street consensus. AAPL has a Strong Buy rating based on 20 Buys and four Holds. Moreover, the average price target for Apple stock is $181.25, implying upside potential of about 31.45% from current price levels.
Coming back to the list, here are October’s top 10 most bought stocks:
1. Apple, unchanged
2. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), previously 3rd, replaced Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
3. Amazon, previously 2nd, replaced Tesla
4. Meta (NASDAQ:META), previously 8th, replaced Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)
5. Alphabet Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL), previously 6th, replaced Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
6. Microsoft, previously 5th, replaced Alphabet Class A
7. Nio, previously 14th, replaced AMD
8. Alphabet Class C, previously 12th, replaced Meta
9. Nvidia, previously 4th, replaced Ford
10. Alibaba, previously 25th, replaced Intel
Most Sold Stocks
Compared to September, October’s list of the top 10 most sold stocks had only one stock displacing an old stock. Interestingly, Apple topped this list, too, replacing Amazon.
Fortunately for Disney (NYSE:DIS), the stock dropped out of the top 10 list, and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) entered the list.
The selling trends show a very distinct trend: the top 10 most sold stocks were all technology stocks.
Coming back to the most sold stocks, PayPal moved up five places on the list, possibly just being caught in the middle of a general pessimism around tech stocks.
SMBC Nikko analyst Andrew Bauch remains unsure about PayPal’s new long-term growth algorithm, which is likely to be introduced early next year. However, the analyst sees several upsides to the stock in the quarters ahead.
Is PayPal a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Analyst Bauch has a Hold rating on PayPal stock with a price target of $100.
On the other hand, Wall Street is mostly optimistic, with a Moderate Buy consensus on PayPal stock based on 17 Buys and six Holds. Moreover, the average price target for PYPL stock is $111.14, which indicates 48% upside potential.
PYPL shares have tumbled almost 61% this year thus far.
Here are the top 10 most sold stocks for September:
1. Apple, previously 3rd, replaced Amazon
2. Amazon, previously 1st, replaced Tesla
3. Tesla, previously 2nd, replaced Apple
4. Nvidia, unchanged
5. Microsoft, unchanged
6. Meta, previously 7th, replaced Alphabet Class A
7. Google, previously 6th, replaced Meta
8. AMD, unchanged
9. Nio, previously 10th, replaced Disney
10. PayPal, previously 14th, replaced Nio
We will come back soon with the most traded stocks of November. Until then, stay ahead of the market by easily tracking your own portfolio’s performance with a Smart Portfolio on TipRanks.
