Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Now Covered by China Renaissance

China Renaissance began coverage on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $241.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $202.33 to $167.88 in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Redburn Partners set a $230.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America cut their price target on Apple from $265.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.00.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $199.74 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $217.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $229.69. Apple has a 52 week low of $164.92 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Apple by 10.6% during 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 buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,999,145,000 after buying an additional 6,307,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $46,868,648,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.