JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $255.00

Key Points

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. has increased its price target for Apple (AAPL) stock from $250.00 to $255.00, indicating a potential upside of 25.21% from the previous close.
• Apple reported earnings of $1.57 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates of $1.43, with a revenue of $94.04 billion.
• The company has authorized a $100 billion share repurchase plan, highlighting the board's belief that its stock is undervalued.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) had its price target lifted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $250.00 to $255.00 in a report published on Friday, Marketbeat reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the iPhone maker's stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on AAPL. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. DA Davidson boosted 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. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $237.25.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL traded down $5.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $202.38. The company had a trading volume of 97,423,066 shares, compared to its average volume of 44,912,472. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $205.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $213.77. Apple has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.71, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 172.48%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Apple's dividend payout ratio is presently 15.78%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its stake in 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 worth $39,065,374,000 after buying an additional 205,656,808 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the first quarter valued at $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position 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 worth $133,425,490,000 after acquiring an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 worth $349,532,608,000 after acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.