Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, BenzingaRatingsTable reports. Wedbush currently has a $235.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $225.00. Wedbush also issued estimates for Apple’s Q3 2019 earnings at $2.13 EPS, Q4 2019 earnings at $2.80 EPS, Q2 2020 earnings at $2.93 EPS, Q3 2020 earnings at $2.57 EPS, Q4 2020 earnings at $3.20 EPS and FY2020 earnings at $13.22 EPS.
AAPL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a buy rating and issued a $228.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 11th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a buy rating and issued a $185.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 18th. ValuEngine downgraded shares of Apple from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Credit Suisse Group restated a hold rating and issued a $182.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Sunday, March 31st. Finally, Loop Capital downgraded shares of Apple from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $145.69 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, January 3rd. Three research sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $211.43.
Get Apple alerts: NASDAQ:AAPL traded up $2.60 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $211.75. 20,829,425 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, 25,495,868. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.25. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $142.00 and a fifty-two week high of $233.47. The company has a market cap of $1,040.78 billion, a PE ratio of 17.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.14.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $2.37 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $58.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $57.40 billion. Apple had a net margin of 22.12% and a return on equity of 51.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.73 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Apple will post 11.48 EPS for the current year.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.73. Apple’s payout ratio is 24.52%.
Apple announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, April 30th that allows the company to buyback $75.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.
In other Apple news, insider Luca Maestri sold 51,138 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.61, for a total transaction of $10,054,242.18. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 27,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,396,551.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website . Insiders own 0.05% of the company’s stock.
A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 505.0% in the 1st quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. now owns 242 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $46,000 202 shares in the last quarter. Semmax Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $76,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 30.6% in the 4th quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $97,000 144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truehand Inc bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $108,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.43% of the company’s stock.
Apple Company Profile
Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, and personal computers. It also sells various related software, services, accessories, and third-party digital content and applications. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and Mac, a line of desktop and portable personal computers, as well as iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS operating systems.
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