Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Upgraded at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) from an underperform rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has $246.99 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock, up from their prior target price of $203.07.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Apple from $230.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $279.00 price objective on Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 11th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $276.39.

Apple Stock Down 0.4%

AAPL opened at $270.37 on Friday. Apple has a one year low of $169.21 and a one year high of $277.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $248.34 and its 200-day moving average is $222.34. The company has a market capitalization of $4.01 trillion, a PE ratio of 41.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.81, for a total transaction of $33,375,798.03. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $842,412,558.95. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 16th. The stock was 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 approximately $2,168,373.35. This trade represents a 32.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 259,121 shares of company stock valued at $65,358,981 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. American Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. American Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 1,151 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Capstone Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Capstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,537 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,174,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Baker Boyer National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Baker Boyer National Bank now owns 18,011 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,695,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Beddow Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Beddow Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,597 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, Uncommon Cents Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Uncommon Cents Investing LLC now owns 10,609 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,701,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.