Piper Sandler Reaffirms “Neutral” Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $225.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 0.34% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on AAPL. Maxim Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $203.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Melius Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Moffett Nathanson assumed coverage on Apple in a research note on Monday, August 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $211.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.27.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $225.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $222.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $204.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.26 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 517,924 shares of company stock worth $114,786,399 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Apple by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Apple by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Apple by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,160,183,000 after buying an additional 2,785,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Apple by 6.7% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,909,457,000 after buying an additional 3,245,281 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.