Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price shot up 0.5% on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $220.00 to $235.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $212.24 and last traded at $211.10. 10,912,318 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 56,561,880 shares. The stock had previously closed at $210.14.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on AAPL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Redburn Partners set a $230.00 price target on Apple in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, China Renaissance assumed coverage on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $241.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares in the company, valued at $40,072,269.86. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $941,214. The trade was a 50.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Apple by 3.0% in the first quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 412,924 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $91,723,000 after purchasing an additional 12,002 shares during the period. Pacific Point Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Pacific Point Advisors LLC now owns 14,990 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,330,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Security National Bank of SO Dak grew its holdings in Apple by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Security National Bank of SO Dak now owns 44,679 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,925,000 after acquiring an additional 1,611 shares in the last quarter. Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 2.8% during the first quarter. Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC now owns 75,991 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $16,880,000 after purchasing an additional 2,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, YANKCOM Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 23,594 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,241,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $214.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $229.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a market capitalization of $3.17 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

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.