Apple's (AAPL) Hold Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold" rating reiterated by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $225.00 price target on the iPhone maker's stock. Needham & Company LLC's target price would indicate a potential upside of 12.15% from the company's current price.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on AAPL. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, May 12th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt reduced their price objective on Apple from $260.00 to $245.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Raymond James reduced their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $235.80.

Apple Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL traded down $2.19 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $200.63. 55,023,682 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 56,120,355. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. The company's fifty day moving average is $201.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $224.54. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.53 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,533 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This trade represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter worth about $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% in 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. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 49,168,843 shares during the period. 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.