Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $260.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 5.48% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.78.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $246.49 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $231.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $222.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.73 trillion, a PE ratio of 41.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.23. 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 fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $250.80.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 previous year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Bull Oak Capital LLC lifted its position in Apple by 252.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its position in shares of Apple by 88.9% during the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in Apple during the third quarter worth $77,000. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the 3rd quarter valued at $110,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% 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.