Barclays Raises Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $187.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective increased by Barclays from $164.00 to $187.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an underweight rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on AAPL. Itau BBA Securities upgraded Apple from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Apple from $190.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Melius Research upped their target price on Apple from $227.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Apple from $216.00 to $273.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, July 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $230.09.

Apple Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $217.96 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $210.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $190.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $835,207,570.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total transaction of $951,809.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 14,395.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,119,470,000 after purchasing an additional 70,212,651 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Apple by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,677,190,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,531,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,587 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.