Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Up 0.6% – Here’s What Happened

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares traded up 0.6% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $248.57 and last traded at $248.08. 10,027,147 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 57,341,895 shares. The stock had previously closed at $246.49.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Moffett Nathanson reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $236.78.

Apple Trading Up 0.1 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $232.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $223.41. The firm has a market cap of $3.75 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.81, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,416,137.76. This represents a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Apple by 10.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $77,542,863,000 after buying an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at $3,026,492,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% 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.