Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Up 1% – Time to Buy?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price shot up 1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $237.81 and last traded at $237.33. 28,481,377 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 51% from the average session volume of 58,094,508 shares. The stock had previously closed at $234.93.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Maxim Group increased their price objective on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.68.

Apple Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $229.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $220.74. The company has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 lifted its holdings in shares of 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, Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,026,492,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.