Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Now Covered by Analysts at StockNews.com

Investment analysts at StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) in a research report issued on Thursday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $190.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 12th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $190.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $180.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Apple from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Apple from $167.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.24.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $152.99 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.89. Apple has a 1 year low of $124.17 and a 1 year high of $179.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $145.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $145.38.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.93 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $117.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $121.67 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.56% and a return on equity of 163.45%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.10 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 116,483.5% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $74,002,245,000 after buying an additional 569,066,184 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $21,746,940,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Apple by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $27,110,586,000 after purchasing an additional 25,926,552 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can purchased a new position in Apple during the third quarter valued at $1,890,884,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 53.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 30,235,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,178,590,000 after purchasing an additional 10,471,342 shares in the last quarter. 57.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Apple

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Apple, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and other varieties of related services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The Americas segment includes North and South America.