Evercore ISI Issues Positive Forecast for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Price

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective boosted by Evercore ISI to $260.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Stock Target Advisor reports. Evercore ISI currently has a buy rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Apple from $253.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $262.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $242.52.

Apple Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $245.83 on Thursday. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The company’s fifty day moving average is $240.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $232.29. The firm has a market cap of $3.69 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. Analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Drystone LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Bull Oak Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 252.3% during the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Life Planning Partners Inc bought a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $63,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by 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.