Analysts Set Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) PT at $208.06

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-five brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have issued a hold recommendation, twenty-two have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $209.38.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Wedbush upped their price target on Apple from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 346,270 shares of company stock worth $60,880,196. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,119,470,000 after purchasing an additional 70,212,651 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter worth approximately $3,026,492,000. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 23,076.4% in the first quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,584,512,000 after purchasing an additional 9,200,345 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL opened at $207.49 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $220.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $187.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Apple announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.