Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $237.49 and last traded at $236.25, with a volume of 18221660 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $231.30.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $186.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.27.

Apple Stock Down 0.9 %

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $225.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $207.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.05, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. Apple’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.26 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 517,924 shares of company stock worth $114,786,399 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bellwether Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 387.3% in the second quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,128,000 after acquiring an additional 19,352 shares during the last quarter. WT Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth $80,057,000. Councilmark Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Apple during the first quarter worth $11,776,000. Financial Life Advisors acquired a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $212,000. Finally, Hummer Financial Advisory Services Inc boosted its position in Apple by 2.2% during the first quarter. Hummer Financial Advisory Services Inc now owns 5,488 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $941,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.