Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price Down 1.2% - What's Next?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) dropped 1.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $208.08 and last traded at $207.52. Approximately 12,195,080 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 53,363,017 shares. The stock had previously closed at $210.01.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. UBS Group set a $210.00 target price on Apple and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $235.27.

Apple Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $203.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $217.41. The firm has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.89, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.20. 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 167.24% and a net margin of 24.30%. Apple's revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 boost 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. Apple's dividend payout ratio is presently 16.20%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 15,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 4,569 shares in the company, valued at $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 573,627.2% during the second 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 acquiring an additional 205,656,808 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the first quarter valued at $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after acquiring an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company's stock.

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.