Brokerages Set Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) PT at $162.86

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has received a consensus rating of “Buy” from the fifty-five analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $169.38.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods set a $170.00 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 22nd. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $170.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, June 21st. Nomura reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, July 5th. Barclays PLC set a $123.00 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $177.00 price target (up from $161.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, May 17th.

ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: This article was originally posted by [[site]] and is owned by of [[site]]. If you are viewing this article on another site, it was illegally copied and republished in violation of U.S. & international copyright and trademark legislation. The correct version of this article can be viewed at [[permalink]].

Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) traded down 1.00% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $155.57. The stock had a trading volume of 27,097,296 shares. Apple has a one year low of $102.53 and a one year high of $157.21. The company has a market cap of $136.09 billion, a PE ratio of 17.62 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $147.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $142.60.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $45.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.94 billion. Apple had a net margin of 20.87% and a return on equity of 35.46%. The business’s revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.42 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple will post $8.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 6.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 14th will be given a $0.63 dividend. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.64%.

In other news, insider Daniel J. Riccio sold 11,949 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.86, for a total transaction of $1,707,034.14. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP D Bruce Sewell sold 67,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.76, for a total transaction of $10,041,300.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 141,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,023,507. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 373,000 shares of company stock valued at $56,497,046. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $5,625,709,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in Apple by 966.6% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 9,457,769 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,096,072,000 after buying an additional 8,571,027 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Apple by 14,030.2% in the second quarter. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,515,315 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $31,352,000 after buying an additional 4,483,360 shares during the last quarter. Glenview Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $365,191,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in Apple by 23.2% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 9,289,482 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,334,527,000 after buying an additional 1,749,797 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 61.17% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company Profile

Apple Inc (Apple) designs, manufactures and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players, and a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. The Company’s products and services include iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, Apple TV, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the iOS and OS X operating systems, iCloud, and a variety of accessory, service and support offerings.