Raymond James Raises Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $250.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective lifted by Raymond James from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has an outperform rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Apple from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $196.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Melius Research lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $227.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Cfra boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $230.09.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $217.96 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The business has a 50 day moving average of $210.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $190.13. Apple has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.23. The company has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.37 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.55%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total value of $951,809.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,278 shares in the company, valued at $5,574,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Apple by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,119,470,000 after purchasing an additional 70,212,651 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Apple by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.