Morgan Stanley Lowers Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $360.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price cut by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $364.00 to $360.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 7.97% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, July 13th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 1st. KGI Securities downgraded shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $315.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $328.60.

Apple Trading Down 1.4%

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $333.43 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 40.32, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Apple has a one year low of $201.50 and a one year high of $344.57. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $309.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.13. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.The firm had revenue of $109.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $109.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Apple will post 8.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total transaction of $34,236.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 38,713 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,425,754.82. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,426,283,914 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $387,749,545,000 after buying an additional 26,856,752 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 604,056,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $164,218,801,000 after buying an additional 6,555,392 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Apple by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 358,032,517 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $97,031,587,000 after acquiring an additional 1,866,103 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Apple by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 230,483,035 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $62,659,118,000 after acquiring an additional 1,379,651 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $52,266,468,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Key Apple News

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple reported record quarterly revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16.4% year over year, while diluted EPS of $2.02 exceeded Wall Street’s $1.89 estimate. iPhone revenue rose 22% to $54.3 billion and Mac revenue increased 29% to $10.4 billion. Apple reports third quarter results
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at Baird, Goldman Sachs and Citi reiterated Buy ratings, citing premium hardware pricing, stabilizing high-margin Services growth, and longer-term opportunities from Apple’s artificial-intelligence strategy. Price targets ranged from $330 to $365. Goldman Sachs reiterates Buy rating
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s new leasing program, supported by Klarna, could encourage more frequent upgrades and increase sales of higher-priced devices. The company also highlighted an all-time-high installed base and potential AI-related growth, including a possible paid tier for advanced Siri features. Apple leasing program

Apple Company Profile

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple’s principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.