Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 1.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) were up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $240.00 to $260.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $246.43 and last traded at $246.17. Approximately 12,696,184 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 64% from the average daily volume of 35,600,293 shares. The stock had previously closed at $243.36.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. KeyCorp cut Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Loop Capital cut their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Apple to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.03.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple 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 transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, 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 company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lantz Financial LLC grew its position in Apple by 8.6% during the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,266,000 after buying an additional 2,361 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital increased its stake in shares of Apple by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 204,579 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $47,164,000 after purchasing an additional 10,400 shares during the last quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 57,052 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,292,000 after purchasing an additional 969 shares during the period. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 1.8% in the second quarter. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC now owns 46,018 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $9,692,000 after purchasing an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EWG Elevate Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 16.8% during the second quarter. EWG Elevate Inc. now owns 15,317 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,226,000 after purchasing an additional 2,199 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 0.7 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 trillion, a PE ratio of 40.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $239.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $229.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. 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.