Rosenblatt Securities Reiterates “Neutral” Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by equities researchers at Rosenblatt Securities in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $196.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock, up from their previous target price of $189.00. Rosenblatt Securities’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 6.88% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $205.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $158.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.00.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL opened at $183.38 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.52, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $172.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $181.60. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $199.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 153.25%. The company’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Apple will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Apple announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Arcus Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 15,181 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,599,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 5.6% in the third quarter. Buttonwood Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 15,990 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,738,000 after acquiring an additional 843 shares during the period. Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 900.1% during the third quarter. Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors LLC now owns 295,556 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $50,602,000 after purchasing an additional 266,003 shares during the last quarter. PPS&V Asset Management Consultants Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 10.9% during the third quarter. PPS&V Asset Management Consultants Inc. now owns 36,478 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,245,000 after purchasing an additional 3,571 shares during the period. Finally, MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. MinichMacGregor Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,486 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,651,000 after buying an additional 383 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% 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.