Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Down 0.4%

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 0.4% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $224.61 and last traded at $226.37. 8,808,024 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 61,829,285 shares. The stock had previously closed at $227.37.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Loop Capital raised Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $170.00 to $300.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Cfra boosted their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.76.

Apple Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $222.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $201.22. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.26 EPS. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Apple by 3.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,096,360 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 2.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,067,587 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,785,807 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Apple

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.