Apple’s (AAPL) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI restated their outperform rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Evercore ISI currently has a $250.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on AAPL. Barclays cut their target price on Apple from $187.00 to $186.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. KeyCorp restated a hold rating and issued a $247.61 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Cfra raised their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Maxim Group reiterated a hold rating and set a $203.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $239.17.

Apple Stock Up 3.7 %

AAPL stock opened at $228.87 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.51 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.59, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $237.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $222.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.26 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,469,275. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 113,884 shares of company stock valued at $23,723,887 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Verus Financial Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% 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.