Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price Up 0.8% After Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares traded up 0.8% on Monday after Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on the stock from $195.00 to $240.00. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $209.56 and last traded at $209.22. 15,631,327 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 64,739,891 shares. The stock had previously closed at $207.49.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on AAPL. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $164.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.38.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,119,470,000 after purchasing an additional 70,212,651 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter worth about $3,026,492,000. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its position in Apple by 23,076.4% during the first quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,584,512,000 after buying an additional 9,200,345 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 1.5 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market cap of $3.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $187.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $184.75.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The company had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.52 EPS. Apple’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 2nd that allows the company to buyback $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.