Apple (AAPL): Profit-Taking

As the summer rally continued this week, Apple (AAPL) triggered my next sell order at a key trendline of resistance with the order going through at $167.34 on Monday. The sale locked in +14.58% in profits on shares I bought for $146.05 back on September 17, 2021 and lowered my per-share “cost” -$6.35 from -$40.85 to -$47.20 (a negative per-share cost indicates all capital has been removed in addition to $47.20 per share added to the portfolio’s bottom line in addition to each share’s current value).

Despite this rampant profit-taking on my part, Apple’s rally is causing it to regularly exceed the target allocation size for the portfolio by a large margin, even after the sales I take. Accordingly, my next sell target is $173.75, below a key point of resistance, and my next buy target is $130.20, slightly above AAPL’s 2022 low of $129.04.

AAPL closed the week at $172.12, up +2.86% from where I took profits Monday.

Disney (DIS): Profit-Taking

Disney (DIS) has been an absolutely disappointing underperformer this year, down nearly -30% YTD as it headed into its earnings report on Wednesday. So, when the stock popped on better-than-feared inflation data, I took profits with a sale that went through at $112.49, locking in a +12.87% gain on shares I bought on May 12 for $99.66, and lowering my per-share cost -7.82% from $36.95 to $34.06.

Since we had no way of knowing which way DIS’s earnings could go, the prudent course of action was to take the profits I had and then set my next sell target for $127.30, right below a past point of resistance, should DIS report a good earnings report. Disney did end up reporting excellent earnings, causing the stock to pop, however, it has not yet reached my next profit-taking target.

From here, my next buy target is $81.30, above Disney’s pandemic bottom. Given all the macroeconomic and global headwinds combined with Disney’s horrible recent performance, I’m in no hurry to add to my position and raise my cost basis before really good deals present themselves, at this point.

DIS closed the week at $121.57, up +8.07% from where I took profits Wednesday.

Morgan Stanley (MS): Profit-Taking

Investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS) saw a substantial pop in its stock price following the better-than-feared inflation data on Wednesday along with the rest of the financial sector, jumping through my next profit-taking target with a sale that filled at $87.98.

It might seem odd for me to take profits in a brand-new position I just opened less than four months ago on April 25, but given the seasonality of the markets given a historical trend to a pretty substantial selloff between August and the end of October, I wanted to capitalize on the available gains I had.

The sale locked in +20.75% in gains on shares I bought for $72.86 on June 16, and also served to lower my per-share cost -1.60% from $80.25 to $78.97. From here, my next sell target is just under MS’ $109.73 all-time high, and my next buy target is at $72.90, a bit above Morgan Stanley’s 2022 low of $72.05.

MS closed the week at $91.66, up +4.18% from where I took profits Wednesday.