Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading 0.5% Higher

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price traded up 0.5% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $168.30 and last traded at $167.79. 12,136,799 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 60,274,887 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.90.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. DA Davidson assumed coverage on Apple in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $166.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Bank of America upgraded Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $208.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.05.

Apple Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.62 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.46, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a fifty day moving average of $173.30 and a 200 day moving average of $181.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. The firm had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $117.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.88 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Investors of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. Apple’s payout ratio is 14.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $84,378,155.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $84,378,155.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. grew its position in Apple by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. now owns 11,464 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,963,000 after purchasing an additional 598 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC grew its position in Apple by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 172,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $29,589,000 after purchasing an additional 20,737 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC grew its position in Apple by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,236,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its position in Apple by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 75,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,461,000 after purchasing an additional 10,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS grew its position in Apple by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 4,307,068 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $829,240,000 after purchasing an additional 279,311 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company Profile

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.