Bank of America Reiterates "Buy" Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Bank of America reiterated their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a $235.00 target price on the iPhone maker's stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group restated an "underperform" rating and issued a $170.62 price target (up from $167.88) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Maxim Group raised their target price on Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $234.86.

Apple Stock Down 1.4%

AAPL stock traded down $2.75 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $196.45. The company had a trading volume of 51,345,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 54,804,317. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a market capitalization of $2.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $201.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $223.10. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. This is a boost from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.20%.

Apple declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares of the company's stock, valued at $87,377,116.59. This 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 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Apple during the first quarter worth $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 25,934.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 3.7% in 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 buying an additional 49,168,843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position 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 valued at $5,272,653,000 after buying an additional 20,966,232 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.