Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Announces $0.25 Quarterly Dividend

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 31st, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the iPhone maker on Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%.

Apple has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Apple has a dividend payout ratio of 13.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Apple to earn $7.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.3%.

Apple Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of AAPL traded down $4.19 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $225.91. The stock had a trading volume of 63,372,520 shares, compared to its average volume of 59,357,734. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $211.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.43 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Apple will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,223,062.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,223,062.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction 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 represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 517,924 shares of company stock valued at $114,786,399 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Maxim Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $203.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.91.

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.