Bank of America Reaffirms Buy Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Bank of America reissued their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a $256.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an overweight rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a buy rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded Apple from a neutral rating to a buy rating and increased their price target for the company from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $238.76.

Apple Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $226.80 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.27, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $222.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $204.24. Apple has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $237.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.26 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Apple will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 24,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. The trade was 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 458,619 shares of company stock valued at $101,352,630 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Shared Vision Wealth Group LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,300,000. Pacific Sun Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Pacific Sun Financial Corp now owns 40,580 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $7,813,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Marshall Financial Group Inc. ADV lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Financial Group Inc. ADV now owns 7,311 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,408,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the period. Moran Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC now owns 29,062 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares during the period. Finally, Quotient Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $15,684,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.