Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0.7% – Should You Buy?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares traded up 0.7% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $226.92 and last traded at $226.59. 10,236,485 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 58,564,520 shares. The stock had previously closed at $225.12.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AAPL. Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.51.

Apple Trading Down 1.4 %

The firm has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $227.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $215.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 404,040 shares of company stock worth $91,062,512. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Granite Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $60,958,000 after buying an additional 7,606 shares during the last quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC increased its position in Apple by 387.3% during the second quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the last quarter. Gentry Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $876,000. Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 920,737 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $193,926,000 after purchasing an additional 8,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WT Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth $80,057,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.