Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Up 0.3% Following Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price rose 0.3% during trading on Friday after Maxim Group raised their price target on the stock to $215.00. Maxim Group currently has a hold rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $246.94 and last traded at $246.55. Approximately 10,006,311 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 52,243,445 shares. The stock had previously closed at $245.83.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on AAPL. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Loop Capital downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Apple to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $262.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, January 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $244.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after buying an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,999,145,000 after buying an additional 6,307,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth $46,868,648,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Down 0.1 %

The firm’s 50 day moving average is $240.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $232.72. The stock has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

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.