Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Raises Dividend to $0.25 Per Share

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the iPhone maker on Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Apple has increased its dividend by an average of 5.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Apple has a payout ratio of 13.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Apple to earn $7.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.5%.

Apple Trading Up 2.2 %

NASDAQ AAPL traded up $3.73 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $173.03. The company had a trading volume of 92,324,744 shares, compared to its average volume of 60,772,266. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $172.38 and a 200 day moving average of $181.63. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $199.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.88 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on AAPL. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Apple from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday. Redburn Partners lowered Apple to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Apple from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $574,260,512.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.