Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) released its earnings results on Thursday. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock traded up $10.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $183.38. 163,110,196 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 62,045,676. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.56, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.26. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $172.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $181.57. Apple has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $199.62.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.95%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AAPL shares. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $196.00 price objective (up previously from $189.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday. Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Apple from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.72.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.