Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0.4% – Here’s What Happened

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded up 0.4% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $235.89 and last traded at $235.79. 6,112,714 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 57,992,066 shares. The stock had previously closed at $234.93.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Moffett Nathanson cut their target price on Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.68.

Apple Stock Up 0.8 %

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 cap of $3.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.78, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $228.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $219.23.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Granite Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $60,958,000 after buying an additional 7,606 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Apple by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,473,224,000 after buying an additional 126,210 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $406,099,000 after purchasing an additional 95,235 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 34.9% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 200,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $46,650,000 after purchasing an additional 51,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bellwether Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 387.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

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.