Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the iPhone maker on Thursday, February 13th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%.

Apple has raised its dividend by an average of 4.6% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Apple has a dividend payout ratio of 12.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Apple to earn $8.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.9%.

Apple Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of AAPL stock traded down $1.74 on Thursday, reaching $237.62. 49,755,832 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 57,284,332. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $3.57 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.08, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $241.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $230.81.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Apple from $184.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $260.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.05.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

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

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.