Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Rating Lowered by Jefferies Financial Group

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was downgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $212.92 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock, up from their prior target price of $205.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price indicates a potential downside of 5.69% from the stock’s current price.

AAPL has been the subject of several other reports. KeyCorp restated a “hold” rating and set a $247.61 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Moffett Nathanson initiated coverage on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, August 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $211.00 price target on the stock. Maxim Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $203.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Cfra raised their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $170.00 to $300.00 in a report on Monday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.27.

Apple Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $225.77 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $222.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $204.59.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.26 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $736,269,202.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 517,924 shares of company stock worth $114,786,399. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 17.9% during the first quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 206,455 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 31,278 shares in the last quarter. A.P. Gilfoyle & Co. L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 657.1% in the fourth quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. now owns 424 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 368 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% 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.