Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) – Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group boosted their FY2019 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Apple in a research report issued on Wednesday, May 1st, according to Zacks Investment Research. Jefferies Financial Group analyst T. O’shea now forecasts that the iPhone maker will post earnings of $11.42 per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of $11.32. Jefferies Financial Group has a “Hold” rating and a $210.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group also issued estimates for Apple’s Q4 2019 earnings at $2.65 EPS and FY2020 earnings at $13.03 EPS.
Several other analysts also recently weighed in on AAPL. BidaskClub downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Credit Suisse Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $209.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. UBS Group decreased their target price on Apple from $235.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. Morgan Stanley set a $220.00 target price on Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, ValuEngine upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-two have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Apple has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $209.58.
AAPL stock traded down $0.85 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $177.38. The company had a trading volume of 26,696,578 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,871,592. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.32. Apple has a 52 week low of $142.00 and a 52 week high of $233.47. The company has a market capitalization of $879.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.89, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.14.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $2.37 by $0.09. Apple had a return on equity of 51.29% and a net margin of 22.12%. The firm had revenue of $58.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $57.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.73 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis.
Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.6% in the first quarter. Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA now owns 8,321 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,581,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Gould Asset Management LLC CA raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the first quarter. Gould Asset Management LLC CA now owns 6,804 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,292,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Live Your Vision LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.2% in the first quarter. Live Your Vision LLC now owns 4,476 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $928,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. ELCO Management Co. LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the first quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 16,480 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,130,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Madrona Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.0% in the first quarter. Madrona Financial Services LLC now owns 5,467 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,039,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. 54.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 56,411 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.36, for a total transaction of $11,866,617.96. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 151,187 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,803,697.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.86, for a total value of $7,380,100.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,168,283 shares in the company, valued at $246,344,153.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 142,549 shares of company stock worth $29,300,960. Insiders own 0.05% of the company’s stock.
Apple declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, April 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $75.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to buy up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a $0.77 dividend. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.73. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.86%.
Apple Company Profile
Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, and personal computers. It also sells various related software, services, accessories, and third-party digital content and applications. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and Mac, a line of desktop and portable personal computers, as well as iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS operating systems.