Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s share price dropped 0.6% on Friday . The company traded as low as $209.77 and last traded at $210.15. Approximately 18,499,997 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 67% from the average daily volume of 55,794,608 shares. The stock had previously closed at $211.45.
Analyst Ratings Changes
AAPL has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $259.00 to $256.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.80.
Get Our Latest Analysis on AAPL
Apple Price Performance
The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $206.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $226.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released 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 business had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $94.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.53 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Apple Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given a $0.26 dividend. This is a positive change from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Apple's payout ratio is 16.20%.
Apple announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
Insider Activity
In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares of the company's stock, valued at $87,377,116.59. This represents a 8.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 1st quarter worth approximately $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 25,934.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $349,532,608,000 after purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
About Apple
(
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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.
Further Reading
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