Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Receives Underweight Rating from Barclays

Barclays reiterated their underweight rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Stock Target Advisor reports. Barclays currently has a $158.00 price target on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup reissued a buy rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. DA Davidson began coverage on Apple in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They set a neutral rating and a $166.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Apple from $223.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies cut Apple to a neutral rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $220.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $203.05.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $166.90 on Tuesday. Apple has a fifty-two week low of $162.80 and a fifty-two week high of $199.62. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $173.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 trillion, a P/E ratio of 26.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.27.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. The company had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Apple will post 6.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 14.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bell Bank lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 32.8% in the 1st quarter. Bell Bank now owns 50,322 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $8,629,000 after purchasing an additional 12,423 shares during the period. Charter Oak Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Charter Oak Capital Management LLC now owns 79,678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,663,000 after purchasing an additional 10,643 shares during the period. Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc. now owns 62,604 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,735,000 after purchasing an additional 2,170 shares during the period. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. North Point Portfolio Managers Corp OH now owns 5,237 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $898,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares during the period. Finally, Summa Corp. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Summa Corp. now owns 10,264 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,760,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

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.