Short Interest in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Decreases By 7.6%

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was the target of a large decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 124,920,000 shares, a decline of 7.6% from the January 15th total of 135,190,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 49,910,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several research reports. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $262.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Apple from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.52.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. PACK Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 4.7% during the second quarter. PACK Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $569,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. GPM Growth Investors Inc. acquired a new position in Apple during the second quarter worth $11,158,000. Pursue Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 4.0% during the second quarter. Pursue Wealth Partners LLC now owns 27,121 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,712,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049 shares during the last quarter. Commons Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.4% during the second quarter. Commons Capital LLC now owns 40,511 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,532,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Del Sette Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 207.2% during the second quarter. Del Sette Capital Management LLC now owns 17,860 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,762,000 after purchasing an additional 12,047 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.1 %

AAPL opened at $244.47 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $240.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $231.94. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.20. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.87%.

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.