Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 1,480,505 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 46% compared to the average volume of 1,012,742 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Burkett Financial Services LLC raised its stake in Apple by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 14,401 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,199,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. Avid Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 28.3% in the 1st quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,211 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $935,000 after purchasing an additional 930 shares during the last quarter. Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 62,001 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,772,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,332 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,337,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Andina Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 209.2% during the 1st quarter. Andina Capital Management LLC now owns 6,786 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,507,000 after buying an additional 4,591 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.74.

Apple Trading Up 3.2%

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $245.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $224.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $212.42.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.78%.

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.