Raymond James Increases Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $250.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective boosted by Raymond James from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Raymond James’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 14.76% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on AAPL. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Apple from $190.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price (up from $190.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $230.09.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ AAPL traded up $0.36 on Friday, reaching $217.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 23,476,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 63,609,793. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.07, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $210.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.84.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.37 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Apple announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total transaction of $951,809.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Instrumental Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Instrumental Wealth LLC now owns 6,912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,503,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 16.9% during the 2nd quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 252,409 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $53,162,000 after buying an additional 36,507 shares during the period. Granite Harbor Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Granite Harbor Advisors Inc. now owns 27,609 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,815,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the period. Riverpark Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Apple by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Riverpark Capital Management LLC now owns 16,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,543,000 after buying an additional 647 shares during the period. Finally, Sequent Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $214,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.