Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Down 4.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) shares dropped 4.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $265.00 to $260.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Apple traded as low as $220.60 and last traded at $220.59. Approximately 30,259,480 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 37% from the average daily volume of 47,950,949 shares. The stock had previously closed at $229.98.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Maxim Group upped their target price on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $238.02.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% in the 3rd 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 buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 6.5% in 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 buying an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,603,000 after buying an additional 7,558,826 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $241.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $230.85. The company has a market capitalization of $3.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.45%.

About Apple

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.