Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Receives "Buy" Rating from Bank of America

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Bank of America in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $256.00 price objective on the iPhone maker's stock. Bank of America's price objective indicates a potential upside of 5.19% from the company's previous close.

AAPL has been the topic of several other reports. New Street Research reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com lowered Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $238.03.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $243.36. The stock had a trading volume of 40,180,707 shares, compared to its average volume of 47,960,703. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $238.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $228.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.68 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.03, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $136,074,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its position in Apple by 14,145.8% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $1,603,000 after purchasing an additional 7,558,826 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Company Profile

Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; Mac, a line of personal computers; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod.