Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Hits New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as $281.06 and last traded at $281.0880, with a volume of 18145493 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $278.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Argus set a $325.00 target price on Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, October 27th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.22.

Apple Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $4.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.96, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.09. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $263.27 and a 200 day moving average of $231.86.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.11. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The company had revenue of $102.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.64 EPS. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.92%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of Apple 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at $35,181,866.93. The trade was a 23.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 3,752 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.23, for a total transaction of $1,017,654.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 15,098 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,095,030.54. This trade represents a 19.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 228,052 shares of company stock valued at $58,604,588 over the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 1,279,533 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $325,807,000 after purchasing an additional 78,101 shares during the last quarter. RIA Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. RIA Advisory Group LLC now owns 23,258 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,922,000 after acquiring an additional 1,963 shares during the last quarter. Syverson Strege & Co boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.0% in the third quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 16,675 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,246,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Payne Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 31.2% in the third quarter. Payne Capital Management LLC now owns 13,640 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,473,000 after purchasing an additional 3,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Research Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $7,093,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.