Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Evercore ISI Analyst Says

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price lifted by Evercore ISI from $250.00 to $260.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Thursday. Barclays cut their price target on Apple from $184.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.52.

Apple Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $236.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $241.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $230.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.82, a PEG ratio of 2.39 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 earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. Analysts predict that Apple will post 7.34 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 worth $77,542,863,000 after buying an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,285.2% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 9,628,864 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,411,260,000 after acquiring an additional 9,590,933 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.