Wedbush Reaffirms "Outperform" Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Key Points

• Wedbush has reaffirmed an outperform rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and set a price target of $270.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.83% from its current price.
• Recent analyst reports indicate a mixed outlook for Apple, with Loop Capital lowering its price target, while Citigroup and Bank of America raised theirs, resulting in a consensus rating of Moderate Buy.
• Apple reported earnings of $1.57 per share for the last quarter, significantly exceeding analyst expectations, with revenue reaching $94.04 billion, a 9.6% year-over-year increase.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reissued by equities researchers at Wedbush in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $270.00 price target on the iPhone maker's stock. Wedbush's price objective suggests a potential upside of 12.65% from the stock's current price.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $217.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Bank of America reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, August 25th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Apple from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $239.05.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $239.69. 54,829,143 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 47,688,568. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $219.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $212.86.

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

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 34,821 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. 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 worth $290,506,933,000 after acquiring an additional 15,141,995 shares in 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 worth $123,358,461,000 after acquiring an additional 5,224,229 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 worth $72,506,336,000 after acquiring an additional 4,942,638 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth about $38,942,255,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.