UBS Group Boosts Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $236.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price upped by UBS Group from $190.00 to $236.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on AAPL. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, June 28th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Apple from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the stock from $170.00 to $300.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $238.62.

Apple Stock Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $220.82 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $223.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $197.26. Apple has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $237.23. The company has a market cap of $3.39 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.34, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 last year, the business earned $1.26 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,531,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Apple by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,807 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

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.