Apple's (AAPL) "Hold (C+)" Rating Reiterated at Weiss Ratings

Key Points

• Apple's stock rating was reaffirmed as a "Hold (C+)" by Weiss Ratings, showing cautious optimism from analysts.
• Multiple brokerage firms have raised their price targets for Apple, with Bank of America setting a new target at $270.00 and Wedbush at $310.00, indicating positive sentiment in the market.
• A recent transaction revealed CEO Timothy D. Cook sold over 129,000 shares of Apple stock, resulting in a 3.81% decrease in his position, yet he still holds a substantial amount valued at over $842 million.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold (c+)" rating reaffirmed by analysts at Weiss Ratings in a report issued on Wednesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AAPL. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Evercore ISI set a $290.00 price target on shares of Apple and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Wedbush set a $310.00 price target on shares of Apple and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $247.49.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock traded up $1.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $258.06. The company had a trading volume of 36,141,573 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,748,621. Apple has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.83 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.09. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $234.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $215.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.40 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.81, for a total transaction of $33,375,798.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $842,412,558.95. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 43,013 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total transaction of $11,071,116.07. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. This represents a 23.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 254,922 shares of company stock valued at $64,320,190. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,415,932,804 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $290,506,933,000 after purchasing an additional 15,141,995 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 601,249,995 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $123,358,461,000 after purchasing an additional 5,224,229 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 354,749,794 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $72,506,336,000 after acquiring an additional 4,942,638 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 573,627.2% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at about $38,942,255,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.

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