Bank of America Corporation restated their buy rating on shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research report released on Thursday morning. They currently have a $180.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock.
AAPL has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS AG set a $165.00 price target on Apple and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $160.08 price target (down previously from $176.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 9th. Longbow Research reiterated a buy rating and issued a $173.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, August 11th. Instinet reiterated a buy rating and issued a $175.00 price target (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp reiterated an equal weight rating on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, August 4th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Apple has a consensus rating of Buy and an average target price of $167.73.
Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) opened at 159.86 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $153.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $146.76. The firm has a market cap of $825.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.15 and a beta of 1.31. Apple has a 12-month low of $102.53 and a 12-month high of $162.51.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.10. Apple had a return on equity of 35.40% and a net margin of 20.87%. The company had revenue of $45.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Apple will post $9.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to buy up to 6.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 17th. Investors of record on Monday, August 14th were issued a $0.63 dividend. This represents a $2.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is 28.64%.
In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 6,209 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.96, for a total value of $1,005,609.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Johny Srouji sold 10,019 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.96, for a total transaction of $1,542,525.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 91,291 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,055,162.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 185,140 shares of company stock valued at $29,045,404. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Navellier & Associates Inc raised its stake in Apple by 8.7% in the second quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc now owns 12,642 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,821,000 after buying an additional 1,010 shares during the period. McAdam LLC raised its stake in Apple by 8.7% in the second quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 3,609 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $520,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the period. Kimelman & Baird LLC raised its stake in Apple by 0.7% in the second quarter. Kimelman & Baird LLC now owns 128,088 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $18,447,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the period. RNC Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Apple by 2.1% in the second quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 93,484 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,464,000 after buying an additional 1,927 shares during the period. Finally, HWG Holdings LP raised its stake in Apple by 39.7% in the second quarter. HWG Holdings LP now owns 17,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,580,000 after buying an additional 5,095 shares during the period. 61.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
About Apple
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.
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