Historically, tumultuous times offer some of the best opportunities to buy stocks, and the market's current mess surely qualifies. And certainly, leading companies like reinvigorated computer and smartphone maker Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could actually benefit from the current malaise, giving investors many reasons to consider buying shares today.

In our Motley Fool CAPS community, 21,935 investors have given a bullish or bearish opinion on the company. Poring through the detailed information packed in pitches and other comments, I've dug up three of the top reasons why many members consider Apple stock a buy today:

1. Innovative products: To stay ahead of intense competition, Apple recently unveiled improved MacBooks and a faster and cheaper iPhone. The new iPhone 3GS ups the ante for other touchscreen devices like the Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre, recently released exclusively by Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), and other smartphones from Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM). And in an astounding achievement Apple's app store recently hit 1 billion downloads in only nine months, and its new iPhone 3.0 operating system is expected to bring a new generation of powerful apps to continue drawing users.

2. Continued performance: In a tough economy that's pressuring revenue at companies like Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and IBM (NYSE:IBM), Apple's top line is holding up fine. It reported a 9% increase in revenue, rising to $8.16 billion, with earnings growing 15% in its latest quarter. Margins also increased from a year ago and its iPhone and iPod sales both beat expectations.

3. Strong balance sheet: Unlike Palm, Apple's balance sheet is solid and deep, giving it plenty of flexibility. Apple is swimming in cash, with more than $25 billion in cash and short term investments. It has no debt and generated $9.1 billion in free cash flow over the past 12 months.

Of course, Apple shares aren't cheap. And there's a lot more devil in the details of these buy-side opinions, which is why CAPS is such a great resource to check and balance your own analysis. You can read the bullish and bearish sides to every stock. To see what the very best CAPS members are saying now about Apple, just click on over to Motley Fool CAPS and have a look -- it's all free, and your opinion's welcome, too.

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