Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price Up 1.3% – What’s Next?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded up 1.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $233.25 and last traded at $232.87. 90,152,832 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 54% from the average session volume of 58,384,531 shares. The stock had previously closed at $229.87.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Melius Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

Apple Stock Up 1.3 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.52 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $228.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $218.64.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. This represents a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Castellan Group boosted its stake in Apple by 206.9% during the 3rd quarter. Castellan Group now owns 5,782 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,347,000 after purchasing an additional 3,898 shares during the last quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,290,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in shares of Apple by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 1,091,062 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $254,217,000 after buying an additional 250,514 shares in the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,383,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 42.1% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 513,775 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $119,709,000 after buying an additional 152,262 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% 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.