APPLE MANIA.

I was greeted by a picture of a young lady's smiling face this morning as I opened the front page of today's Investor's Business Daily. She was "showing off her new iPhone 4 outside the Apple Store in Orlando, Florida." Yes, you could tell she was a very happy person. She would be even happier if she had also purchased some of Apple's stock.

"Apple's newest smart phone was selling briskly Thursday as thousands of people lined up outside stores around the world to become among the first to own the device. Some stores sold out completely within hours," said IBD. Demand is expected to outstrip supply for months to come. Apple and its partners took more than 600,000 pre-orders on June 15, the first day people could reserve the iPhone 4. Some analysts say Apple could sell 1.5 million units in the first two days. Apple plans to ramp up production from 1.5 million iPhones a month to 4 million in July; then to a quarterly run rate of 15 million by December. Even with this homerun, iPads and iMacs continue to fly off the shelves.

All of this has not gone unnoticed. A Reuters story this morning reported that Oppenheimer estimated first-day iPhone 4 sales at 1.5 million units. Moreover, Oppenheimer also raised its fiscal 2010 earnings estimate for Apple to $14.52 per share and fiscal 2011 estimate to $17.96 per share. Our current 12-month forecasted earnings estimate, EPS, is $14.77 per share. This means that we expect Apple to be earning $14.77 per share 12 months from now. So it appears that Oppenheimer may be a bit too optimistic.

But let's take a look at a two-year Standard Graph of Apple. Adjust the graph to show EPS in the lower portion in place of RT. Note that 18 months ago, 12/24/08 to be exact, EPS hit a low point of $5.11 per share and it has going up ever since, slowly at first; then by leaps and bounds. So who knows how high Apple can fly? Oppenheimer raised its price target to $345 per share and 42 of 46 analysts who follow the stock have either a "strong buy" or "buy" rating on it. So what's keeping you from taking a bite of the Apple?

Professor Navvaro of the University of California said on CNBC last week that he likes Apple, but can't afford to buy the stock...its price is too high. Whoa, we solved that problem a long time ago. In fact, we wrote about how you can control substantial shares of Apple stock with very little capital outlay on April 23, 2010. If you read that essay and didn't understand it, never fear, Jerry's here.

Mr. D'Ambrosio, one of our best instructors, will illustrate how to set up a trade which could produce the largest returns you've ever had. So visit the VectorVest University to see Jerry's great "Strategy of the Week" presentation: "Apple Mania."