Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Announces $0.25 Quarterly Dividend

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the iPhone maker on Thursday, February 13th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th.

Apple has raised its dividend by an average of 4.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Apple has a payout ratio of 12.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Apple to earn $8.33 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.0%.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $236.00 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $241.68 and a 200-day moving average of $230.87. The company has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.20. 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 has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Equities research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $253.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Loop Capital downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.52.

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.