Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading 1.1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price was up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Evercore ISI raised their price target on the stock from $260.00 to $275.00. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Apple traded as high as $218.76 and last traded at $215.10. Approximately 14,029,188 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 52,733,532 shares. The stock had previously closed at $212.69.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $262.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $243.65.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,868,648,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 23,555.4% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,272,653,000 after acquiring an additional 20,966,232 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.5 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $232.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $233.33. The stock has a market cap of $3.22 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

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.