Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Down 0.4% – Here’s Why

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded down 0.4% on Friday . The company traded as low as $241.89 and last traded at $242.78. 11,828,582 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average session volume of 32,665,635 shares. The stock had previously closed at $243.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.03.

Apple Stock Down 0.2 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $238.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $228.98. The firm has a market cap of $3.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 40.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was 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 owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents 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 insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 8.6% during the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,266,000 after buying an additional 2,361 shares in the last quarter. AHL Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 5.3% in the second quarter. AHL Investment Management Inc. now owns 33,157 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,680 shares during the period. Asset Management Advisors LLC raised its position in Apple by 1.0% in the second quarter. Asset Management Advisors LLC now owns 45,736 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,633,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. Signature Wealth Management Partners LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 4.0% during the second quarter. Signature Wealth Management Partners LLC now owns 52,874 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,136,000 after purchasing an additional 2,016 shares during the period. Finally, D.B. Root & Company LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 46,704 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $9,837,000 after purchasing an additional 5,947 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% 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.