Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) in a research report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $170.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group restated a buy rating and issued a $195.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, March 2nd. Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 8th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $168.24.

Apple Trading Up 1.3 %

AAPL opened at $150.47 on Friday. Apple has a 1-year low of $124.17 and a 1-year high of $179.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $144.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $145.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.55, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.30.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $117.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $121.67 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.56% and a return on equity of 163.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.10 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 13th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.62%.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Apple by 116,483.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $74,002,245,000 after purchasing an additional 569,066,184 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $21,746,940,000. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $27,110,586,000 after acquiring an additional 25,926,552 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can bought a new position in shares of Apple during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,890,884,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 53.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 30,235,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,178,590,000 after acquiring an additional 10,471,342 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.60% of the company’s stock.

About Apple

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Apple, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and other varieties of related services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The Americas segment includes North and South America.