Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target Raised to $250.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price target increased by Rosenblatt Securities from $241.00 to $250.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the subject of several other reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC set a $220.00 price target on Apple and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Melius Research set a $345.00 target price on Apple in a research report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $276.39.

Apple Trading Down 0.4%

AAPL stock opened at $270.37 on Friday. Apple has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $277.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $4.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.03, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $248.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $222.34.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.11. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The business had revenue of $102.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 13th. Investors of record on Monday, November 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total transaction of $11,071,116.07. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. This represents a 23.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.39, for a total value of $1,038,790.61. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 8,765 shares in the company, valued at $2,168,373.35. The trade was a 32.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 259,121 shares of company stock worth $65,358,981. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Ryan Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter valued at $31,000. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 110.9% during the third quarter. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the period. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% during the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. Nexus Investment Management ULC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 333.3% during the second quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 260 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Elite Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the first quarter valued at $58,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.