NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Apple Inc. are down by 0.42% to $131.61 in pre-market trading on Wednesday, as a federal jury ruled that the iPhone maker must pay $532.9 million for infringing on inventions by Texas-based Smartflash LLC. Smartflash claimed that software used in Apple's iTunes music service was infringing on three patents held by the technology development and licensing corporation and was originally seeking $852 million when the suit was first brought against Apple, Bloomberg reports. The patents related to digital rights management and inventions dealing with data storage and managing access using payment systems. Apple has vowed to appeal the jury's decision. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 "Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented. We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system," an Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates APPLE INC as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate APPLE INC (AAPL) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth and notable return on equity. Although the company may harbor some minor weaknesses, we feel they are unlikely to have a significant impact on results." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Powered by its strong earnings growth of 47.72% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 67.31% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, AAPL should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year. APPLE INC has improved earnings per share by 47.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, APPLE INC increased its bottom line by earning $6.43 versus $5.66 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($8.58 versus $6.43). The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has greatly exceeded that of the S&P 500, but is less than that of the Computers & Peripherals industry average. The net income increased by 37.9% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $13,072.00 million to $18,024.00 million. Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 30.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 29.5%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. Current return on equity exceeded its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of strength within the company. When compared to other companies in the Computers & Peripherals industry and the overall market, APPLE INC's return on equity exceeds that of the industry average and significantly exceeds that of the S&P 500. You can view the full analysis from the report here: AAPL Ratings Report
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