Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price lifted by equities research analysts at Wedbush from $300.00 to $325.00 in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Wedbush’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 27.16% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on AAPL. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Loop Capital reduced their price target on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.47.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $255.59 on Thursday. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $237.41 and a 200-day moving average of $227.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.04, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its position in Apple by 14,145.8% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,603,000 after purchasing an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% 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.