Apple’s (AAPL) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $260.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Moffett Nathanson reissued a “sell” rating and set a $188.00 price target (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.14.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $223.66 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $241.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $230.77. The company has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.20. Apple has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Drystone LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Bull Oak Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 252.3% during the third quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Apple during the second quarter worth $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position in Apple by 88.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter valued at $71,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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.