Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Given Buy Rating at Bank of America

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at Bank of America in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $256.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 5.19% from the company’s current price.

AAPL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Maxim Group boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned 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 MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.03.

Apple Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $243.36 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.68 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.03, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. 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’s fifty day moving average is $238.91 and its 200 day moving average is $228.87. Apple has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bull Oak Capital LLC grew its position in Apple by 252.3% during the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda purchased a new position in Apple in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $71,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its holdings in Apple by 88.9% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in Apple in the 3rd quarter valued at $77,000. 67.73% 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.