Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Receives “Hold” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their hold rating on shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Apple from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, April 17th. KeyCorp reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, June 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.60.

Apple Stock Down 7.4%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $308.91 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Apple has a 12 month low of $201.50 and a 12 month high of $344.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.54 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $309.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $281.45.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.13. Apple had a net margin of 27.62% and a return on equity of 142.29%. The firm had revenue of $109.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.57 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Apple will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total transaction of $369,460.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,226,770. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apple

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,426,283,914 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $387,749,545,000 after buying an additional 26,856,752 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 604,056,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $164,218,801,000 after buying an additional 6,555,392 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 358,032,517 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $97,031,587,000 after acquiring an additional 1,866,103 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 230,483,035 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $62,659,118,000 after acquiring an additional 1,379,651 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $52,266,468,000. Hedge funds and other 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: Apple reported record June-quarter revenue of $109.4 billion, up 16.4% year over year, and diluted EPS of $2.02, exceeding Wall Street expectations. iPhone revenue rose 22% to $54.3 billion, while Mac revenue increased 29% to $10.4 billion. Apple reports third quarter results
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s large installed base, strong hardware demand and potential consumer-AI opportunities remain long-term supports. Some analysts remain bullish: TD Cowen raised its price target to $400, while other firms maintained Buy or Overweight ratings despite trimming estimates. Analyst raises Apple price target
• Positive Sentiment: The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.27 per share, payable August 13 to shareholders of record August 10. Apple also continues to emphasize an AI strategy that requires less capital spending than the infrastructure-heavy approach used by some peers. Apple Q3 financial results

Apple Company Profile

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.