Apple Stock

According to a report released by the NPD Group earlier today, Apple has sold more accessories during the two weeks following the iPhone 6 launch than in the same period after any other iPhone launch.

The Group's Weekly Tracking Service showed record breaking sales of $249 million, which amounts to a 43% increase over the two weeks prior to the launch. By comparison, the iPhone 5s and 5c launch generated $195 million in mobile phone accessory sales, about 17% greater than the two weeks leading up to their launch date.

In a note to Apple CEO Tim Cook today, billionaire investor Carl Icahn revealed that Icahn Enterprises believes Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock is currently trading at about half of what it is worth. In order to remedy this, the note basically urges Cook to convince the Board of Directors to buy back more stock at a faster pace.

According to the note (which is titled "Sale: Apple Shares at Half Price," and posted on Icahn's site, Shareholder's Square Table), Icahn Enterprises' projected growth for Apple in FY 2016 and FY 2017 "more than adequately justifies using a P/E multiple of 19x our FY 2015 forecast, which along with net cash values Apple at $203 per share

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock has suffered several price swings in the past month and, according to a Bloomberg report, the bears are out in numbers and causing increased volatility in the market.

According to St. Louis-based Stifel Nicolaus & Co. money manager, Chad Morganlander, "Apple is the largest publicly traded company in the U.S. and it has great influence on every index it’s in.” In fact, it is so influential that a 1% drop in its value results in a 5 point loss for the Nasdaq 100 Index, according to Bloomberg reporters Joseph Ciolli and Callie Bost. It also results in a $6 billion drop in the company's market value.

Although Piper Jaffray believes there is huge potential in the Apple Watch's future, the investment bank believes it may take some time for Apple's new wearable to truly catch on.

In a note written to investors on Wednesday and provided to AppleInsider, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimated that Apple would sell around 10 million of its watches in 2015. This is a bit less than BMO's recent estimate of 12 million sales. He advised investors to hold "conservative expectations" for first year sales and wrote, "Overall, we believe that the Apple Watch is light years ahead of any other smartwatch on the market, but consumer application may be limited initially until developers begin to

Another investment analytics firm has joined the club and raised Apple's target price per share. Just a few days after BMO raised its target price to $110, Evercore Partners went a bit further, raising its price to $125 from $115.

In a research note to investors, provided to AppleInsider, Evercore analyst Rob Cihra maintained his "overweight" rating for Apple stock (NASDAQ: AAPL), meaning that he expects the stock to return above the average of the overall industry. He upped his fourth quarter iPhone sales estimate to 39 million, which would represent a 15% year-over-year increase. Fourth quarter results will be disclosed on Monday Oct. 20 at 5:00 PM ET.