Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Short Interest Down 13.1% in July

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw a significant decrease in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 117,700,000 shares, a decrease of 13.1% from the July 15th total of 135,380,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 65,500,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on AAPL. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Apple from $205.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Itau BBA Securities upgraded Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Cfra raised their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $234.29.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $226.05 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $218.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $193.13. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.16, a PEG 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 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.26 earnings per share. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.55%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that allows the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 180,178 shares of company stock valued at $36,133,537 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Apple by 36.7% in the 2nd quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC now owns 35,553 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,488,000 after buying an additional 9,536 shares in the last quarter. Newport Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in Apple during the second quarter valued at $1,338,000. Ecofi Investissements SA acquired a new stake in Apple during the second quarter valued at $773,000. High Falls Advisors Inc grew its stake in Apple by 0.8% in the second quarter. High Falls Advisors Inc now owns 54,733 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,528,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Regal Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Apple by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 142,682 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $30,052,000 after purchasing an additional 2,049 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.