The markets are experiencing a bit of a bear rally at present and Apple has certainly joined the – what I expect to be – short-lived party, with its stock price increasing a hefty 20% in the last month. It has been one of the strongest performing stocks in a bounce which has seen the Dow increase 5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq see a 6.4% boost.

The company announced its second-quarter results on April 23rd and many heralded Apple’s numbers as better than expected. They showed a $1.05 billion net profit compared with $770 million for the same quarter in the previous year and revenue rose almost 43%; sales of Macintosh computers, with their high margin, were up and impacted on the overall revenue figures significantly. However, the results didn’t please everyone with some highlighting the fact that gross margin had fallen more than Wall Street had expected. That said April has seen analyst target prices once again breaching the magic $200 level, whilst the stock currently sits at around $170. Everything about Apple is in stark contrast to Microsoft. Bill Gates’ Corporation reported weak Windows software sales and delivered a below-target profit forecast all of which immediately dragged the stock down and contributed to its very modest monthly increase of 2% (compared with Apple’s 20% hike over the same period). Vista is a dud and is further proof that Microsoft is dead.

It is still hard to imagine that Apple stock can get back to the dizzy heights of $200. However another monthly increase of 20% would see it break through this. Never say never with Apple and Jobs, but hey it’s a random walk so don’t stake your house on it.