Apple’s (AAPL) “Neutral” Rating Reiterated at Rosenblatt Securities

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating restated by equities researchers at Rosenblatt Securities in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $196.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock, up from their previous target price of $189.00. Rosenblatt Securities’ price target would suggest a potential upside of 6.10% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler Companies lowered Apple to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Bank of America raised Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $208.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Apple from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Apple from $205.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.97.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock traded up $11.71 during trading on Friday, hitting $184.74. The stock had a trading volume of 37,246,072 shares, compared to its average volume of 60,520,461. The stock has a market cap of $2.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.07. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $172.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.57. Apple has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $199.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. Apple’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Headinvest LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the third quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,236,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 75,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,461,000 after purchasing an additional 10,425 shares during the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 4,307,068 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $829,240,000 after acquiring an additional 279,311 shares during the period. Boltwood Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 37,178 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,158,000 after buying an additional 1,021 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Private Wealth Partners LLC now owns 673,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $115,284,000 after acquiring an additional 24,634 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% 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.