Piper Sandler Reiterates Neutral Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Piper Sandler in a report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $225.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target indicates a potential upside of 1.05% from the company’s previous close.

AAPL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Cfra upped their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Apple from $187.00 to $186.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 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 given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.62.

Apple Trading Up 1.2 %

AAPL opened at $222.66 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Apple has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.23. The business’s 50 day moving average is $223.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $198.06. The firm has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. 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 company posted $1.26 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,912,466,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 buying an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Apple during the first quarter worth about $3,026,492,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 23,076.4% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased 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 acquiring an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.