Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Given New $240.00 Price Target at Wedbush

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective increased by Wedbush from $230.00 to $240.00 in a report published on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Fundamental Research set a $183.86 price objective on Apple and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 17th. 51job reissued a maintains rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $215.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a buy rating and issued a $195.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Apple from $149.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $199.41.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $175.01 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $184.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $175.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $2.74 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.27. Apple has a one year low of $124.17 and a one year high of $198.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The iPhone maker reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $81.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.79 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 164.92% and a net margin of 24.68%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Apple will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 11th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 15,419 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.56, for a total value of $2,753,216.64. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,445 shares in the company, valued at $24,363,619.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $221,753,959,000 after purchasing an additional 8,734,393 shares during the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 915,560,382 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $150,975,907,000 after buying an additional 20,424,207 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 578,897,858 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $112,288,818,000 after buying an additional 2,616,084 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 116,483.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $74,002,245,000 after buying an additional 569,066,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 291,538,165 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $56,396,763,000 after buying an additional 6,367,053 shares during the last quarter. 58.51% of the stock is 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.