Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Key Points

• Barclays has increased its price target for Apple (AAPL) from $173.00 to $180.00, indicating a potential downside of 14.68% from the stock's previous close, while maintaining an "underweight" rating.
• Apple reported strong earnings, with $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter and revenue of $94.04 billion, surpassing analyst expectations.
• The company's Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program allowing Apple to repurchase up to $100 billion in outstanding shares, suggesting the board believes the shares are undervalued.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by research analysts at Barclays from $173.00 to $180.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an "underweight" rating on the iPhone maker's stock. Barclays's price target would indicate a potential downside of 14.68% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $236.74.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $210.97 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $205.22 and a 200 day moving average of $213.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.20. Apple has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 167.24%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 15,533 shares in the company, valued at $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 573,627.2% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 205,656,808 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at about $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% in 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 buying an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.7% in the 4th 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. 67.73% of the stock is currently 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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