Barclays Reiterates Underweight Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Barclays reiterated their underweight rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a report published on Tuesday, Stock Target Advisor reports. Barclays currently has a $158.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on AAPL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Apple from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Redburn Partners lowered shares of Apple to a neutral rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. UBS Group restated a hold rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, March 25th. DZ Bank restated a hold rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $189.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $203.05.

Apple Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $169.89 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.62 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s fifty day moving average is $173.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.85. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $162.80 and a fifty-two week high of $199.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.88 EPS. Analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.95%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total transaction of $10,188,879.64. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,378,155.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. boosted its stake in Apple by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. now owns 11,464 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,963,000 after purchasing an additional 598 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 172,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $29,589,000 after purchasing an additional 20,737 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,236,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 16.1% in the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 75,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,461,000 after acquiring an additional 10,425 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 4,307,068 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $829,240,000 after acquiring an additional 279,311 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.