Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Up 0.2% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 0.2% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $243.71 and last traded at $242.70. Approximately 37,560,095 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 14% from the average daily volume of 43,806,977 shares. The stock had previously closed at $242.21.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Three 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $237.64.

Apple Stock Up 0.2 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $239.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $229.66. 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 $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake 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 worth $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 worth $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake 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 worth $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,603,000 after purchasing an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% 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.