TD Cowen Reiterates Buy Rating for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

TD Cowen reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

AAPL has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $238.05.

Apple Trading Up 3.7 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $238.26 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $240.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $230.70. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Optas LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 10.8% in the second quarter. Optas LLC now owns 70,806 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,913,000 after purchasing an additional 6,896 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky increased its stake in shares of Apple by 7.3% during the second quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 79,411 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,726,000 after acquiring an additional 5,386 shares during the period. Keb Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.2% during the second quarter. Keb Asset Management LLC now owns 13,755 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,897,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. Calamos Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.5% during the second quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 666,570 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $140,393,000 after acquiring an additional 22,386 shares during the period. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 6.3% during the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 9,829 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,070,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company Profile

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.