Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Research Coverage Started at Maxim Group

Stock analysts at Maxim Group started coverage on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a report issued on Wednesday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The firm set a “hold” rating and a $178.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock. Maxim Group’s price target suggests a potential upside of 5.09% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on AAPL. Redburn Atlantic lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, UBS Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, March 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.34.

Apple Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $169.38 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $176.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $182.31. Apple has a 1-year low of $162.80 and a 1-year high of $199.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. The firm had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.88 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. increased its position in shares of Apple by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. now owns 11,464 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,963,000 after purchasing an additional 598 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 172,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $29,589,000 after purchasing an additional 20,737 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $9,236,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 75,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,461,000 after purchasing an additional 10,425 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS increased its position in shares of Apple by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 4,307,068 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $829,240,000 after purchasing an additional 279,311 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 60.41% 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.