Apple’s (AAPL) Hold Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reissued their hold rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on AAPL. Rosenblatt Securities cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $217.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt decreased their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $170.62 target price (up from $167.88) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on Apple from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $234.86.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $199.20 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $201.28 and a 200 day moving average of $223.37. Apple has a 52-week low of $169.21 and a 52-week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.20%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. O Connor Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. O Connor Financial Group LLC now owns 3,578 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $896,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC grew its stake in Apple by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,260,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 3,775 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $945,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Family Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Apple by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Family Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,910 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,235,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA increased its position in Apple by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 16,682 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,178,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company Profile

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.