Share Buyback Program Approved by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Board

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 1st, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $213.32 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.20 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.86, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Apple has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $212.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $228.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.53 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $263.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Apple from $275.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $232.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares in the company, valued at $40,072,269.86. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 187,021 shares of company stock worth $41,760,140 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% 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.