Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0% on Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded up 0% during trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock to $275.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has a buy rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $247.79 and last traded at $246.80. 7,815,164 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 57,475,996 shares. The stock had previously closed at $246.75.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $77,542,863,000 after buying an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Apple by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,121,656,000 after buying an additional 5,893,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 20,372.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $3.72 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $230.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $222.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid 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 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 16.45%.

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.