Apple Inc. (AAPL) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 10th

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the iPhone maker on Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Apple has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Apple has a payout ratio of 13.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Apple to earn $7.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.5%.

Apple Trading Up 0.4 %

Apple stock opened at $182.40 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $172.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.78. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $199.62. The firm has a market cap of $2.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The company had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Apple will post 6.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total transaction of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to buyback $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Apple from $158.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, May 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.11.

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.