Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Rating Lowered to “Underperform” at Jefferies Financial Group

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was downgraded by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $200.75 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $211.84. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 10.31% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on AAPL. Moffett Nathanson reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $188.00 price target (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.99.

Apple Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $223.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $241.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $230.82. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly 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%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Research analysts predict that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $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 currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Lantz Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,266,000 after buying an additional 2,361 shares during the period. TFC Financial Management Inc. raised its position in Apple by 0.7% during the second quarter. TFC Financial Management Inc. now owns 52,910 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,144,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Busey Bank lifted its holdings in Apple by 0.8% in the second quarter. Busey Bank now owns 1,025,702 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $216,033,000 after acquiring an additional 7,805 shares during the period. Iowa State Bank grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Iowa State Bank now owns 83,106 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $17,504,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431 shares during the period. Finally, First Bancorp Inc ME grew its stake in shares of Apple by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. First Bancorp Inc ME now owns 30,201 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,361,000 after purchasing an additional 956 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.