Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target Raised to $325.00 at Wedbush

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective upped by Wedbush from $300.00 to $325.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Maxim Group upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.47.

Apple Stock Up 0.3 %

AAPL stock opened at $259.02 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a 50-day moving average of $237.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $227.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly 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. Insiders have sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745 in the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bull Oak Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 252.3% in the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter valued at $71,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its holdings in Apple by 88.9% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 3rd quarter worth $77,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.