Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 0.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday after Wedbush raised their price target on the stock from $300.00 to $325.00. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $260.10 and last traded at $258.56. Approximately 8,958,527 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 57,273,676 shares. The stock had previously closed at $258.20.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on AAPL. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.47.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bull Oak Capital LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 252.3% in the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its position in Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda acquired a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $71,000. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new position in Apple in the third quarter worth approximately $77,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 0.3 %

The stock has a market cap of $3.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.60, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $237.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $227.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued 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 0.39%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

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.