Apple (AAPL) stock is on fire lately, shares of the tech juggernaut have gained almost 35% in the past year, trading near historical highs above $200 per share and giving Apple a gargantuan market capitalization value of over $1 trillion. In this context, it makes sense to wonder if the best is already in the past or if Apple stock still offers room for more gains going forward.

Quality And Value In Apple Stock

One key aspect to consider is that size and valuation can be remarkably different things. Apple is the most valuable corporation in the U.S. stock market based on market capitalization, but the stock is in fact very reasonably valued when considering the company's financial quality.

Apple doesn't leave much to be desired in terms of financial performance. The company reported $53.3 billion in revenue last quarter, increasing by 17% year over year. Earnings per share jumped by an impressive 40% versus the same quarter in the prior year, reaching $2.34 per share and surpassing analyst estimates by $0.16 per share.

The business is generating tons of cash. Apple produced $57.9 billion in cash flow from operations during the nine months period ended in June of 2018; this represents an increase of 19.4% versus the same period last year. Financial soundness is unquestionable, the company ended the quarter with a net cash position of $129.1 billion. In addition, management is aggressively rewarding shareholders with generous cash distributions, Apple returned $25 billion to investors the last quarter alone.

Valuation levels are fairly attractive for a company that is producing such a strong financial performance. Wall Street analysts are on average expecting Apple to make $11.73 in earnings per share during the current year and $13.53 next year. Under those assumptions, the stock is trading at a forward price to earnings of 18 and 15 times earnings respectively. Offering a similar perspective, the price to free cash flow ratio for Apple currently stands at a much reasonable 14.5

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AAPL Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts