Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price shot up 0.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Wedbush raised their price target on the stock from $300.00 to $325.00. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $260.10 and last traded at $258.56. 8,958,527 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 57,273,676 shares. The stock had previously closed at $258.20.

Several other analysts also recently commented on AAPL. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, December 13th. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.47.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Financial Symmetry Inc increased its stake in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the second quarter. Financial Symmetry Inc now owns 11,796 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,484,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. CVA Family Office LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 7.4% during the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 51,628 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,874,000 after acquiring an additional 3,573 shares during the last quarter. Hilltop National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.0% during the second quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 41,290 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,696,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 2.4% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,000,264 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $421,296,000 after purchasing an additional 45,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 160,336 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $35,317,000 after purchasing an additional 12,086 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Price 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $237.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $227.21. The firm has a market cap of $3.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 42.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is 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.