Wedbush Raises Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $285.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective upped by Wedbush from $275.00 to $285.00 in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. Wedbush also issued estimates for Apple’s Q2 2025 earnings at $1.67 EPS and Q4 2025 earnings at $1.75 EPS.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Apple from a neutral rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the company from $196.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Itau BBA Securities raised Apple from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and increased their price target for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. One research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $234.29.

Apple Stock Down 6.5 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $205.48 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.24. Apple has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.23. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $213.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $191.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 145.35% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.26 EPS. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Apple will post 6.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 12th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 the SEC website. In related news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were 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 owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,574,531.20. 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 bought and sold shares of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,119,470,000 after acquiring an additional 70,212,651 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,096,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.0% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,067,587 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.