Apple hits intraday record high for first time since 2015

By Noel Randewich

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc shares hit an intraday record high on Tuesday for the first time in almost two years as investors raised bets that a 10th anniversary iPhone will boost lacklustre sales.

The stock was up 1.2 percent at $134.91 in afternoon trade, beating its previous intraday high of $134.54 set on April 28, 2015.

Tuesday's all-time high for the stock followed a record high close the day before and was seen as adding to the stock's momentum.

The S&P 500's largest component has climbed 50 percent from lows in the first half of last year and is up 16 percent so far in 2017, with many investors betting that Apple will mark the iPhone's 10th anniversary with a dramatically improved model.

Many on Wall Street also believe that strong sales of the iPhone 6S two years ago have left a larger-than-normal base of customers ready to upgrade.

"We're holding it, we look for opportunities to buy," said Jeff Carbone, co-founder of Cornerstone Financial Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina. "Consumers feel better, people spend more money. There's still a lot of good to come from Apple."

The Cupertino, California, company reported strong December-quarter results on Jan. 31. Although it gave a cautious outlook for the current quarter, Wall Street expects revenue to grow this year after sinking nearly 8 percent in fiscal 2016.

Apple's stock recently traded at 14.3 times expected earnings, the highest level since April 2015 and significantly higher than the average price-earnings ratio of 12 over the past five years, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

Apple ranks ahead of 87 percent of its peers in the StarMine Price Momentum stock picking model, which assumes long-term price trends tend to continue and that short-term trends tend to revert.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Andrew Hay)