New Street Research Reaffirms Neutral Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

New Street Research reiterated their neutral rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $225.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the subject of several other reports. Moffett Nathanson began coverage on Apple in a research note on Monday, August 19th. They set a neutral rating and a $211.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI restated an outperform rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a buy rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Apple from $187.00 to $186.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Melius Research reiterated a buy rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $238.76.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $227.79 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $222.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $202.16. Apple has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $237.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.49 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.43, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released 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 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $1,958,850.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sage Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.3% during the second quarter. Sage Advisors LLC now owns 44,403 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,352,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416 shares during the period. Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth $1,151,000. Passive Capital Management LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 52.6% during the second quarter. Passive Capital Management LLC. now owns 4,244 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 1,462 shares during the period. Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.0% during the second quarter. Greater Midwest Financial Group LLC now owns 51,783 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,481,000 after acquiring an additional 2,488 shares during the period. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 26.1% during the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 198,136 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $41,731,000 after acquiring an additional 41,004 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.