To The Moon

$Apple(AAPL)$

$NetApp(NTAP)$

It's just about the middle of the year, and there's no end in sight for stock market volatility.

Investors, already reeling from sharp declines in stocks, were dealt another surprise last week as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point. The central bank was clear that it was taking steps to snuff out inflation, but its actions further fueled worries of an impending recession.

Investors are searching for a reminder to keep their long-term objectives in focus. The top Wall Street pros are naming their favorite picks, even as uncertainty looms, according to TipRanks, which tracks the best performing analysts.

Here are two stocks to highlight this week.

Apple

With more than $2 trillion in market capitalization, Apple (AAPL) is one of the largest companies in the world. It has all the resources to sail through the difficult times and keep growing with time.

Nonetheless, Apple's size has not kept it immune from the current issues that are weighing the economy down. The iPhone-maker itself expects as much as an $8 billion hit on sales in the June-end quarter, due to the persistent component supply constraints, which have been aggravated by the Covid-led lockdowns in China. Moreover, Apple also expects revenue headwinds from the stoppage of shipments to Russia.

Macroeconomic headwinds are making Apple's near-term outlook cloudy, but analysts are looking at the long-term prospects. 

Deutsche Bank analyst Sidney Ho recently reiterated a buy rating on the stock despite trimming the price target to $175 from $200. Although Apple did not provide guidance for the fiscal third quarter, Ho expects low single-digit year-over-year growth, taking the growth obstructions into account.

Looking at the persistent geopolitical issues, rising interest rates and slowing consumer spending, the analyst said that he wouldn't "be surprised to hear more chatter about Apple cutting orders."

No doubt, the stock has shed almost 26% in 2022. But Ho finds this performance as good as, or even slightly better than its mega cap peers. Further, he said, the macroeconomic headwinds will not allow the AAPL stock valuation to reach its 5-year high of more than 30 times earnings per share in the next 12 months, giving another reason to consider adding the stock now.

 Sidney Ho holds the spot at No. 127 among almost 8,000 analysts followed on TipRanks. Moreover, he has been successful at 72% of his stock ratings, returning an average of 22.3% on each.

NetApp

Deutsche Bank's Ho is also bullish on is NetApp (NTAP), which provides enterprise storage and data management solutions. The stock has been no stranger to the current setbacks weighing industries down, and its shares have declined about 30% in the year-to-date period.

The higher costs of components and logistics that resulted from supply chain constraints have dented the company's margins. These issues are likely to be near-term hurdles.

Despite the headwinds, NetApp is showing tremendous execution capabilities, and the company has managed to keep its balance sheet strong and in a net-cash position. Having a strong balance sheet has helped this tech giant be consistent with its dividend payments. (See NetApp Dividend Date & History on TipRanks)

Ho points out that the company's shares have underperformed its IT hardware peers by a significant margin in 2022. However, this has opened a great buying opportunity for compounding returns in the long run.

The analyst was a little disappointed when NetApp could not reach its own public cloud annual recurring revenue target due to higher customer attrition and salesforce turnover in the cloud operations unit. However, Ho is not too worried, as NetApp has plans in place to address these issues.

Additionally, Ho is confident that the company's shift in focus from merger and acquisition activities to share buybacks will boost per-share earnings growth.

The analyst reduced the price target from $90 to $84, but upgraded the NTAP stock to buy from hold, keeping in mind the long-term upside.