Apple’s (AAPL) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $250.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AAPL. Loop Capital raised shares of Apple from a hold rating to a buy rating and boosted their target price for the company from $170.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $239.17.

Apple Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $216.32 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $222.91 and a 200-day moving average of $199.00. The stock has a market cap of $3.32 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $237.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,469,275. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were 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 approximately $3,469,275. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 113,884 shares of company stock valued at $23,723,887. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 206,455 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 31,278 shares in the last quarter. A.P. Gilfoyle & Co. L.P. bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 657.1% during the 4th quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. now owns 424 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

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.