New Street Research Reaffirms Neutral Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

New Street Research reiterated their neutral rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $225.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the topic of several other research reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. DA Davidson upgraded Apple from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Apple from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Barclays cut their price objective on Apple from $187.00 to $186.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $238.76.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $227.79 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $222.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $202.16. The firm has a market cap of $3.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.43, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $237.23. 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 earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The firm 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 in the previous year, the company earned $1.26 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apple will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,469,275. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 113,884 shares of company stock valued at $23,723,887 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sage Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.3% during the second quarter. Sage Advisors LLC now owns 44,403 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,352,000 after buying an additional 1,416 shares during the last quarter. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $1,151,000. Passive Capital Management LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 52.6% during the second quarter. Passive Capital Management LLC. now owns 4,244 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $894,000 after buying an additional 1,462 shares during the last quarter. Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.0% during the second quarter. Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC now owns 51,783 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,481,000 after buying an additional 2,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 26.1% during the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 198,136 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $41,731,000 after buying an additional 41,004 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.