Monness Crespi & Hardt Increases Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $245.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective raised by Monness Crespi & Hardt from $205.00 to $245.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a buy rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on AAPL. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Apple from $216.00 to $273.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Melius Research raised their price target on Apple from $227.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Apple from $238.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $234.29.

Apple Trading Down 4.8 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $209.27 on Friday. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.21 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $213.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $191.35.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 145.35% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.26 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Apple will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total value of $951,809.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,574,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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

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.