Apple’s (AAPL) “Hold (C+)” Rating Reiterated at Weiss Ratings

Weiss Ratings reiterated their hold (c+) rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a report published on Wednesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on AAPL. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $298.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $248.29.

Apple Stock Down 3.5%

Shares of AAPL opened at $245.27 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market cap of $3.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day moving average is $237.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $215.92. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 47,125 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.79, for a total transaction of $12,101,228.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,005,982.82. The trade was a 20.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total transaction of $11,071,116.07. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,181,866.93. The trade was a 23.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 254,922 shares of company stock valued at $64,320,190 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SK Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 24.9% in the 3rd quarter. SK Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,528 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,453,000 after acquiring an additional 3,494 shares during the period. Diversified Enterprises LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Diversified Enterprises LLC now owns 83,924 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $21,370,000 after acquiring an additional 2,171 shares during the period. First Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 244.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 53,657 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,663,000 after acquiring an additional 38,070 shares during the period. Warburton Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Warburton Capital Management LLC now owns 7,868 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,009,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares during the period. Finally, Spinnaker Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 44,462 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,322,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is 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.