Raymond James Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price dropped by Raymond James from $250.00 to $230.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Raymond James’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 7.82% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on AAPL. KeyCorp raised shares of Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $202.33 to $167.88 in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $232.63.

Apple Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $213.32 on Wednesday. Apple has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $212.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $228.83. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.20 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares in the company, valued at $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. O Connor Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 3,578 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $896,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 0.5% during the third quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,260,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Menard Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 12,221 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,848,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 3,775 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $945,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.