Brokerages Set Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Target Price at $235.85

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-five ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation, twenty-two have issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $235.85.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This represents a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 182,451 shares of company stock worth $40,818,720. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd 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. FMR LLC raised its stake in 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. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Apple by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,999,145,000 after acquiring an additional 6,307,413 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $46,868,648,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $196.79 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a PE ratio of 31.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Apple has a 12 month low of $164.77 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $219.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $230.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

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.