Short Interest in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Decreases By 7.6%

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 124,920,000 shares, a decline of 7.6% from the January 15th total of 135,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 49,910,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Drystone LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Bull Oak Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 252.3% during the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Conquis Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth about $63,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth about $65,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $244.47 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $240.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $231.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.80, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.20. 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 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on AAPL. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $262.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $280.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.52.

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.