Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Down 1.5% – Time to Sell?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s share price fell 1.5% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $224.44 and last traded at $224.80. 12,990,123 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 58,515,477 shares. The stock had previously closed at $228.22.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AAPL. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Moffett Nathanson started coverage on Apple in a research note on Monday, August 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $211.00 price target for the company. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.51.

Apple Price Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $226.96 and a 200 day moving average of $215.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.45%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This represents a 35.49 % 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, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 404,040 shares of company stock worth $91,062,512 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Granite Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 2.7% during the second quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $60,958,000 after buying an additional 7,606 shares during the period. Bellwether Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 387.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the period. Gentry Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter valued at $876,000. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the second quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 920,737 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $193,926,000 after purchasing an additional 8,028 shares during the period. Finally, WT Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in Apple during the second quarter valued at $80,057,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.