Apple’s (AAPL) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Bank of America

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by Bank of America in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $256.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.87% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Maxim Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $203.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $261.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price (up from $190.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.76.

Apple Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $226.80 on Thursday. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.23. The company has a market cap of $3.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.27, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $222.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $203.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.26 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 458,619 shares of company stock valued at $101,352,630 over the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Apple by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,677,190,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,360 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Apple by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Apple by 5.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after buying an additional 2,785,807 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.