Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Cut to “Neutral” at Rosenblatt Securities

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was downgraded by equities researchers at Rosenblatt Securities from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $217.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ price target would indicate a potential upside of 5.67% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on AAPL. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Apple from $259.00 to $256.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp raised shares of Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.17.

Apple Stock Down 3.7 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $205.35 on Friday. Apple has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $212.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $228.61. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.60, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.53 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares in the company, valued at $941,214. This represents a 50.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 187,021 shares of company stock worth $41,760,140. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its stake in shares of Apple by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 3,380,064 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $787,631,000 after purchasing an additional 588,427 shares during the last quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the third quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 17,236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,016,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Apple by 2.5% during the third quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,457 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,039,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Apple by 7.4% in the third quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 482,411 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $112,402,000 after buying an additional 33,187 shares during the period. Finally, Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the third quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. now owns 28,082 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,543,000 after buying an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% 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.