Melius Research Reiterates Buy Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Melius Research in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $265.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock. Melius Research’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 17.00% from the company’s previous close.

AAPL has been the subject of several other research reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.30.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $226.49 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $220.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $195.02. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.23. The company has a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.24. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 145.35% and a net margin of 26.44%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.26 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program 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 programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 113,884 shares of company stock valued at $23,723,887 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $1,713,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,511 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,643 shares during the period. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA purchased a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,406,000. Barden Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 132.8% in the 4th quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. now owns 32,636 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,283,000 after buying an additional 18,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sunpointe LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,782,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.