Monness Crespi & Hardt Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective upped by equities research analysts at Monness Crespi & Hardt to $245.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 9.54% from the company’s previous close.

AAPL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Maxim Group lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Loop Capital downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.14.

Apple Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $223.66 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $241.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $230.77. Apple has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Apple by 20,372.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted 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 purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Apple by 5.3% during the third 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 during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 14,145.8% during the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,603,000 after purchasing an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. 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.