Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $260.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Maxim Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $203.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Apple to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Melius Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.23.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock traded down $3.00 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $222.91. 65,276,741 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 59,395,426. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $3.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $227.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $212.03.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.15. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apple will post 6.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total transaction of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 24,125 shares in the company, valued at $5,223,062.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 517,924 shares of company stock worth $114,786,399 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Bellwether Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 387.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the period. Gentry Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $876,000. WT Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $80,057,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Apple by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 16,745,201 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,526,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,557,848 shares during the period. Finally, Councilmark Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at about $11,776,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.