Robert W. Baird Increases Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Price Target to $240.00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had its target price raised by Robert W. Baird from $200.00 to $240.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the iPhone maker’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Maxim Group increased their price target on shares of Apple from $178.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of Apple from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and increased their price target for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $230.09.

Apple Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $217.96 on Thursday. Apple has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $237.23. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $210.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $190.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.52 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Apple will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to buyback $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total value of $951,809.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total transaction of $951,809.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 1.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,119,470,000 after buying an additional 70,212,651 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Apple by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,677,190,000 after purchasing an additional 2,096,360 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,531,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,587 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company Profile

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.