Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading 0.8% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock price was up 0.8% on Tuesday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $220.00 to $250.00. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $211.38 and last traded at $209.86. Approximately 14,850,307 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 64,865,559 shares. The stock had previously closed at $208.14.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Melius Research boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $227.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $212.46.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In related news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196 in the last ninety days. Company 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 AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Apple by 1.0% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 206,732,960 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $35,394,751,000 after purchasing an additional 2,018,010 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,119,470,000 after acquiring an additional 70,212,651 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Apple by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,360 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $3.21 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $189.37 and a 200 day moving average of $184.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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.