Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 1.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock price rose 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $240.00 to $260.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $246.43 and last traded at $246.17. Approximately 12,696,184 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average daily volume of 35,600,293 shares. The stock had previously closed at $243.36.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on AAPL. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $237.64.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,121,656,000 after buying an additional 5,893,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Trading Down 1.1 %

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $239.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $229.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The company has a market cap of $3.66 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

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.