Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 0.2% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $225.73 and last traded at $226.11. 8,930,426 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 61,929,262 shares. The stock had previously closed at $226.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price (up from $190.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group raised their price target on Apple from $190.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $261.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $239.17.

Apple Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market cap of $3.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.16, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $222.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $200.82.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.26 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 24,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Apple by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 2.0% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Apple by 5.5% during the 2nd 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. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.