Apple’s (AAPL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Bank of America

Bank of America reissued their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research report report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $253.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock, down from their prior target price of $256.00.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Maxim Group boosted their target price on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.05.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $222.78 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $240.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $230.70. The firm has a market cap of $3.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

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 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Apple will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Drystone LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Bull Oak Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 252.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. Finally, SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new position in Apple in the 3rd quarter worth about $71,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.