UBS Group Boosts Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $236.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its price objective hoisted by analysts at UBS Group to $236.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the iPhone maker’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 16.75% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. DA Davidson set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $202.33 to $167.88 in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.85.

Apple Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $202.14 on Monday. Apple has a 52-week low of $164.08 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $3.04 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a fifty day moving average of $221.65 and a 200-day moving average of $230.79.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,377,116.59. The trade was a 8.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after acquiring an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,999,145,000 after buying an additional 6,307,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at about $46,868,648,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.