Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Receives “Outperform” Rating from Wedbush

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by stock analysts at Wedbush in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $300.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 27.28% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Two 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.68.

Apple Trading Up 0.3 %

AAPL traded up $0.77 during trading on Friday, reaching $235.70. 4,477,961 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 57,984,566. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $228.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $219.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. State Street Corp lifted its position in Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after acquiring an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after acquiring an additional 20,483,787 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after acquiring an additional 5,893,741 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after purchasing an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.