Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target Raised to $294.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $280.00 to $294.00 in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on shares of Apple to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $242.52.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $236.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.20. The company’s 50-day moving average is $241.68 and its 200 day moving average is $230.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.34 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% in 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 buying an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% in 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 buying an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 25,285.2% during the 4th quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 9,628,864 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,411,260,000 after purchasing an additional 9,590,933 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.