Melius Research Increases Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $260.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Melius Research from $227.00 to $260.00 in a research report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Melius Research’s target price points to a potential upside of 24.36% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on AAPL. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $164.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Maxim Group assumed coverage on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. They set a “hold” rating and a $178.00 price objective for the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “buy” rating and issued a $205.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, June 6th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $212.46.

Apple Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $209.07 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $189.37 and its 200 day moving average is $184.94. The company has a market cap of $3.21 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $220.20.

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

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share 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 reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 346,270 shares of company stock worth $60,880,196. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Apple by 1.0% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 206,732,960 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $35,394,751,000 after purchasing an additional 2,018,010 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth 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 worth $136,119,470,000 after buying an additional 70,212,651 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake 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 buying an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% 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.