Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Receives Underweight Rating from Barclays

04 Oct 2024, 05:10 by Michael Walen · The Markets Daily

Barclays reissued their underweight rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report) in a report published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $186.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Apple from $190.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Piper Sandler Companies restated a neutral rating and set a $225.00 price objective (up from $190.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI reiterated a buy rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Maxim Group reiterated a hold rating and issued a $203.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded Apple from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $238.76.

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Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $225.67 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $222.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $203.50. Apple has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $237.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.46 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.10, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid 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

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $111,148,695.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 458,619 shares of company stock valued at $101,352,630 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth $33,912,466,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $253,766,929,000 after acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the first quarter valued at $3,026,492,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its stake in Apple by 23,076.4% in the 1st quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,584,512,000 after acquiring an additional 9,200,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 14,145.8% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,603,000 after purchasing an additional 7,558,826 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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