Apple’s (AAPL) Overweight Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $273.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on AAPL. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.78.

Apple Stock Up 0.1 %

AAPL opened at $248.13 on Friday. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $250.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $232.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $223.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.81, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 6.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after buying an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in Apple by 5.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Apple during the first quarter worth $3,026,492,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.