Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Given New $250.00 Price Target at Raymond James

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price target hoisted by investment analysts at Raymond James to $250.00 in a report released on Monday, Stock Target Advisor reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Raymond James’ price objective points to a potential upside of 8.71% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on AAPL. New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.85.

Apple Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:AAPL traded up $1.72 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $229.98. 68,239,505 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 41,481,172. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.20. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $241.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.79.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during 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. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 8.6% in the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,361 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in Apple by 0.8% in the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 6,202,902 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,306,455,000 after purchasing an additional 48,719 shares during the last quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services lifted its stake in Apple by 3.1% in the second quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 124,883 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $26,303,000 after buying an additional 3,727 shares during the period. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.6% during the second quarter. Centennial Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 28,773 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,060,000 after buying an additional 1,529 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneva Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 2,181.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geneva Partners LLC now owns 63,826 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,443,000 after buying an additional 61,029 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.