Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stock Rating Lowered by Loop Capital

Loop Capital downgraded shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $230.00 target price on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on AAPL. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Citigroup increased their price target on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.14.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $223.66 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.36 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.79, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $241.07 and its 200-day moving average is $230.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. Apple has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Apple will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 10.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Apple by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,121,656,000 after buying an additional 5,893,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.