Raymond James Financial Reaffirms "Outperform" Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial reaffirmed Apple’s stock rating as "outperform," increasing the target price to $240.00, indicating a potential upside of 13.76% from the current price.
• Apple reported earnings of $1.57 per share, surpassing estimates of $1.43, with a revenue of $94.04 billion for the most recent quarter, marking a 9.6% year-over-year increase.
• The company has launched a $100 billion share buyback program, reflecting confidence that the stock is undervalued.

Raymond James Financial reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) in a research note released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $240.00 price target on the iPhone maker's stock, up from their previous price target of $230.00.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. UBS Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Barclays increased their target price on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday. Scotiabank downgraded Apple to a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Two research 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $237.25.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock traded down $5.19 during trading on Friday, hitting $202.38. 97,423,066 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 44,912,472. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Apple has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.71, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.20. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $205.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $213.77.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a return on equity of 172.48% and a net margin of 24.30%. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.40 earnings per share. Apple's revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 11th. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.78%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the sale, the insider owned 15,533 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This trade represents a 22.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,400,790,809 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $311,157,662,000 after buying an additional 5,005,297 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $84,999,145,000 after buying an additional 6,307,413 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 573,627.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $39,065,374,000 after buying an additional 205,656,808 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $46,868,648,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Apple by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% 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.