Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Up 1.2% – Here’s Why

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 1.2% on Monday . The company traded as high as $234.33 and last traded at $234.09. Approximately 8,498,442 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 59,393,016 shares. The stock had previously closed at $231.41.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AAPL. Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective (up previously from $190.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. KeyCorp cut Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.91.

Apple Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $3.59 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $226.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.64.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.26 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Apple news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 517,924 shares of company stock worth $114,786,399. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bellwether Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 387.3% in the second quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the period. Gentry Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $876,000. WT Asset Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter valued at about $80,057,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 16,745,201 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,526,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,557,848 shares during the period. Finally, Councilmark Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter worth approximately $11,776,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.