Monness Crespi & Hardt Cuts Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $245.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPLFree Report) had its price target reduced by Monness Crespi & Hardt from $260.00 to $245.00 in a report published on Friday, Marketbeat reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt currently has a buy rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also commented on AAPL. Raymond James dropped their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Apple from $197.00 to $173.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Maxim Group increased their price objective on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer cut shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.80.

Get Our Latest Research Report on AAPL

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $205.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $212.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $228.58. Apple has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPLGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The company had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.53 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 12th. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total value of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. The trade was a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 25,934.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after buying an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Apple by 10.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Apple by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after buying an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 23,555.4% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,272,653,000 after acquiring an additional 20,966,232 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company Profile

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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.

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Analyst Recommendations for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

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