Apple’s (AAPL) Sell Rating Reiterated at Moffett Nathanson

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “sell” rating restated by equities research analysts at Moffett Nathanson in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $188.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock, down from their previous price target of $202.00. Moffett Nathanson’s price target indicates a potential downside of 22.54% from the stock’s previous close.

AAPL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.64.

Apple Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $242.70 on Tuesday. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $239.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $229.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 20,372.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 14,145.8% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,603,000 after purchasing an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.