Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Receives "Underperform" Rating from Jefferies Financial Group

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "underperform" rating restated by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $170.62 price target on the iPhone maker's stock, up from their previous price target of $167.88. Jefferies Financial Group's target price would indicate a potential downside of 16.91% from the stock's current price.

AAPL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Moffett Nathanson reissued a "sell" rating and issued a $188.00 price target (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Maxim Group increased their target price on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and set a $263.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Apple from $197.00 to $173.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.17.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL traded down $7.97 on Friday, hitting $205.35. The company's stock had a trading volume of 100,891,435 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,192,627. Apple has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.08 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $212.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $228.61.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.53 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at $941,214. The trade was a 50.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total value of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This trade represents a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 23,555.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,272,653,000 after purchasing an additional 20,966,232 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.