Bank of America Reaffirms Buy Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating restated by research analysts at Bank of America in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $230.00 price target on the iPhone maker's stock. Bank of America's target price points to a potential upside of 7.95% from the stock's current price.

AAPL has been the subject of several other reports. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of Apple from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Maxim Group started coverage on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. They set a "hold" rating and a $178.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $207.47.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock traded up $5.92 on Wednesday, hitting $213.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 197,541,933 shares, compared to its average volume of 62,638,293. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $220.20. The company has a market capitalization of $3.27 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.25. The stock's 50 day moving average is $182.00 and its 200-day moving average is $183.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.52 EPS. The business's revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Apple will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 54,732 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $253,766,929,000 after acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.0% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 206,732,960 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $35,394,751,000 after purchasing an additional 2,018,010 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $136,119,470,000 after buying an additional 70,212,651 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Apple by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.