Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Earns “Overweight” Rating from Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley reissued their overweight rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $273.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on AAPL. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Apple from $260.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Cfra raised their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $237.30.

Apple Trading Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $229.79 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $221.05 and a 200 day moving average of $195.24. The company has a market capitalization of $3.52 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.24. 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 has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.23.

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

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total transaction of $1,121,037.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887 over the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at $3,026,492,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 23,076.4% in the first quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,584,512,000 after purchasing an additional 9,200,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its position in Apple by 14,145.8% during the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,603,000 after buying an additional 7,558,826 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.