Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Cut to Hold at China Renaissance

China Renaissance downgraded shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $280.00 price objective on the iPhone maker’s stock.

AAPL has been the subject of several other research reports. KGI Securities downgraded shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $315.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, June 5th. HSBC upgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $260.00 to $366.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $365.00 target price on Apple in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.44.

Apple Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $312.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.56 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.09. Apple has a one year low of $216.58 and a one year high of $344.57. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $309.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $283.02.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $109.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 135.46% and a net margin of 27.62%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.57 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple will post 8.74 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 13th. Investors of record on Monday, August 10th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 12.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total transaction of $34,236.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,425,754.82. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Apple

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter worth approximately $52,266,468,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the first quarter worth approximately $17,472,482,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 890.7% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 41,984,810 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,413,990,000 after acquiring an additional 37,746,784 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 20,464.8% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 27,069,029 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,553,753,000 after acquiring an additional 26,937,401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,426,283,914 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $387,749,545,000 after acquiring an additional 26,856,752 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Key Apple News

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: App Store revenue rose 0.6% year over year to $3.4 billion during the first 35 days of Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter, despite a 4% decline in iPhone and iPad downloads. Revenue per download increased 4.7% to $1.02, suggesting stronger monetization and supporting the Services business. Apple App Store revenue ticks up despite falling downloads
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s fiscal third-quarter revenue reached a June-quarter record of $109.4 billion, up 16% year over year, while earnings exceeded estimates. Reports also point to broad iPhone, Mac and Services demand, resilient iPhone sales and continued growth in India, providing a fundamental counterweight to recent market concerns. Apple’s Quarterly iPhone Sales Were Even Better Than They Seem
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts and market commentators continue to recommend buying the pullback, arguing that Apple’s ecosystem, product pipeline and long-term earnings potential remain attractive despite near-term volatility. 3 Reasons to Buy Apple Stock on the Dip
• Neutral Sentiment: OpenAI asked a federal judge to dismiss Apple’s trade-secrets lawsuit, denying that it misappropriated confidential information through former Apple employees. The filing creates legal and reputational uncertainty, although the financial impact is not yet clear. OpenAI asks US judge to dismiss Apple’s trade secrets case
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts at Phillip Securities, DZ Bank and China Renaissance lowered their views on Apple to Moderate Sell or Hold. Concerns include slowing Services growth, elevated memory costs, supply constraints, policy risks and Apple’s premium valuation.
• Negative Sentiment: Services revenue grew about 12% to $30.7 billion, making it the slowest-growing of Apple’s three largest businesses. Tim Cook also warned that rising memory prices could pressure margins, while the CEO transition adds uncertainty after a record quarter. Tim Cook’s Last Quarter as CEO

About Apple

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple’s principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.