Citigroup restated their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Stock Target Advisor reports. Citigroup currently has a $255.00 target price on the iPhone maker's stock.
Several other research firms have also recently commented on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Cfra lifted their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Barclays reaffirmed an underweight rating and issued a $186.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and set a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $238.76.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Apple
Apple Trading Up 0.5 %
AAPL traded up $1.04 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $227.25. The company had a trading volume of 25,386,422 shares, compared to its average volume of 61,505,504. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.23. The company has a market cap of $3.48 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.13, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $222.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $203.18.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. Apple's revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.
Apple Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Apple's payout ratio is 15.55%.
Insider Activity at Apple
In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,469,275. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.
Institutional Trading of Apple
A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 1.4% during 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. Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Apple by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Apple by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $11,160,183,000 after buying an additional 2,785,807 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Apple Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
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.
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