Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Earns “Buy” Rating from Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note published on Thursday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The firm currently has a $250.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a buy rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Bank of America reissued a buy rating and set a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Cfra boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Loop Capital raised shares of Apple from a hold rating to a buy rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $170.00 to $300.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Apple from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $238.76.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $227.79 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $222.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $202.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released 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 net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Apple by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Apple by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Apple by 5.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after buying an additional 2,785,807 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.