Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $265.00 to $260.00. The stock had previously closed at $229.98, but opened at $224.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Apple shares last traded at $221.45, with a volume of 16,863,271 shares trading hands.

AAPL has been the topic of several other research reports. Raymond James increased their price target on Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Maxim Group increased their target price on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.02.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. O Connor Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 3,578 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $896,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Apple by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Menard Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the third quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 12,221 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,848,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apple Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $3.35 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $241.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $230.85.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors 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 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

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.