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

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $225.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on AAPL. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Apple from $200.00 to $170.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Moffett Nathanson restated a “sell” rating and set a $188.00 price objective (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $290.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, January 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.85.

Apple Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $202.52 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $222.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $230.99. Apple has a one year low of $164.08 and a one year high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. Equities research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.87%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720 in the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,999,145,000 after purchasing an additional 6,307,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $46,868,648,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.