Rosenblatt Securities Reiterates Buy Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Rosenblatt Securities restated their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a $262.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays reduced their price target on Apple from $184.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price target on Apple to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 20th. 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.05.

Apple Stock Up 3.2 %

AAPL stock opened at $229.82 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $240.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.80, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following 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 represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp increased its holdings in Apple by 229.6% in the fourth quarter. Consolidated Portfolio Review Corp now owns 188,191 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $47,127,000 after purchasing an additional 131,098 shares in the last quarter. Citrine Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $801,000. Rik Saylor Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,513,000. Oakworth Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 207,934 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $52,071,000 after acquiring an additional 663 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McHugh Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $9,124,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.