Barclays Has Lowered Expectations for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) had its target price lowered by Barclays from $184.00 to $183.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the iPhone maker's stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on AAPL. Loop Capital downgraded shares of Apple from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $260.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research note on Tuesday. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a "sector weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $237.99.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock traded up $1.19 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $223.83. The stock had a trading volume of 64,002,872 shares, compared to its average volume of 54,795,949. The firm has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.20. Apple has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The business's 50-day moving average is $241.09 and its 200 day moving average is $230.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during 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 buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $77,542,863,000 after acquiring an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in Apple by 5.3% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in Apple by 14,145.8% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $1,603,000 after purchasing an additional 7,558,826 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

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.