Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $275.00 to $252.00 in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on AAPL. Argus raised Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays increased their price objective on Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. DA Davidson set a $290.00 price objective on Apple in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $243.22.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $213.49 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $234.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $233.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company has a market capitalization of $3.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. Apple has a 52-week low of $164.08 and a 52-week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. Research analysts predict that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,999,145,000 after acquiring an additional 6,307,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. Hedge funds and other 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.