Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $260.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 13.94% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on AAPL. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. DA Davidson raised Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.17.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $228.20 on Thursday. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $3.50 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.49, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $222.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $199.99.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.26 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Apple will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Heritage Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Heritage Investment Group Inc. now owns 12,007 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,312,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. Cetera Trust Company N.A acquired a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,678,000. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI boosted its holdings in Apple by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 392,328 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $75,535,000 after purchasing an additional 40,295 shares in the last quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP boosted its holdings in Apple by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP now owns 421,744 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $81,198,000 after purchasing an additional 1,710 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brendel Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,418,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.