Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price Up 2.5% After Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded up 2.5% on Thursday after Tigress Financial raised their price target on the stock from $245.00 to $295.00. Tigress Financial currently has a strong-buy rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $232.44 and last traded at $232.24. 17,033,688 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 61,539,641 shares. The stock had previously closed at $226.49.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective (up from $190.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.3 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market cap of $3.51 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $221.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.48.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 145.35%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

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.