Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0.8% – Here’s Why

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price rose 0.8% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $227.68 and last traded at $227.49. Approximately 8,436,967 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 60,742,188 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.77.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. DA Davidson raised Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $190.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.27.

Apple Trading Up 1.3 %

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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $223.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $204.97. The company has a market capitalization of $3.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.26 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 517,924 shares of company stock valued at $114,786,399. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. United Community Bank grew its holdings in Apple by 87.9% in the fourth quarter. United Community Bank now owns 22,443 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,321,000 after purchasing an additional 10,500 shares during the period. Winslow Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 7,850,106 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,511,381,000 after buying an additional 164,601 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 24,971,206 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,807,706,000 after buying an additional 172,900 shares during the last quarter. Vannoy Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $295,000. Finally, Ratio Wealth Group increased its position in shares of Apple by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Ratio Wealth Group now owns 11,662 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,245,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% 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.