Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective lifted by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to $275.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 10.99% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.78.

Apple Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $247.77 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a PE ratio of 40.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $230.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.26. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $248.21.

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

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bull Oak Capital LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 252.3% in the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in shares of Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the third quarter worth $77,000. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the third quarter valued at $110,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.