Apple’s (AAPL) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $270.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock. Wedbush’s target price suggests a potential upside of 17.72% from the company’s current price. Wedbush also issued estimates for Apple’s FY2025 earnings at $7.38 EPS, Q1 2026 earnings at $2.44 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $1.78 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $1.72 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $1.90 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $7.85 EPS.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. China Renaissance began coverage on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $241.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.60.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $229.35 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $206.84 and a 200-day moving average of $213.21. Apple has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The company has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.16.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.40 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,233,815.27. This trade represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in Apple by 573,627.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $39,065,374,000 after buying an additional 205,656,808 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter worth $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Apple in the first quarter worth $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 25,934.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares during the period. 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.