Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Receives Neutral Rating from Rosenblatt Securities

Rosenblatt Securities restated their neutral rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a report published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $198.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Jaffray Companies upped their target price on Apple from $180.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, July 31st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a buy rating and set a $195.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 7th. UBS Group cut Apple from a buy rating to a neutral rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $190.00 in a report on Monday, June 12th. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Apple from $235.00 to $230.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $198.72.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $176.30 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. Apple has a 12 month low of $124.17 and a 12 month high of $198.23. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $185.67 and a 200-day moving average of $175.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.27.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The iPhone maker reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $81.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $81.79 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 164.92% and a net margin of 24.68%. The company’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Apple will post 6.05 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 11th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 15,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.56, for a total transaction of $2,753,216.64. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 136,445 shares in the company, valued at $24,363,619.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the first quarter worth about $30,000. St. James Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 98.3% in the fourth quarter. St. James Investment Advisors LLC now owns 236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Summit Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 16,252.3% in the first quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,992,420 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 6,949,659 shares during the period. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 21.7% in the first quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 448 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $60,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.51% 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.