Apple’s (AAPL) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Evercore ISI

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Evercore ISI in a research report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $250.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.32% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Loop Capital upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $170.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $261.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.17.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $216.79 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $222.67 and a 200 day moving average of $199.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $3.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Apple

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

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the first quarter valued at about $3,026,492,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 23,076.4% in the 1st quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,584,512,000 after acquiring an additional 9,200,345 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 14,145.8% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,603,000 after acquiring an additional 7,558,826 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

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.