Morgan Stanley Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "overweight" rating reissued by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $235.00 price target on the iPhone maker's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective points to a potential upside of 15.24% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $197.00 to $173.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.02.

Apple Stock Up 1.6%

NASDAQ AAPL traded up $3.29 on Thursday, reaching $203.92. The company had a trading volume of 46,477,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,141,787. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. Apple has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company's fifty day moving average is $201.56 and its 200-day moving average is $224.35.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced 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 during 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved 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 purchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Drystone LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $63,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $65,000. Finally, Elite Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 1st quarter worth approximately $58,000. 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.