Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Down 4.8% Following Analyst Downgrade

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price dropped 4.8% during trading on Monday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $187.00 to $186.00. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the stock. Apple traded as low as $197.12 and last traded at $209.33. Approximately 47,581,402 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 25% from the average daily volume of 63,476,293 shares. The stock had previously closed at $219.86.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Cfra boosted their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, July 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Itau BBA Securities raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price objective on Apple from $205.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at $835,207,570.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total value of $951,809.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,119,470,000 after purchasing an additional 70,212,651 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Apple by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Stock Down 1.0 %

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $214.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $191.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 145.35% and a net margin of 26.44%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.26 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Apple announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.