Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. The trade was a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.
Apple Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $203.19 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.08 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $230.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $233.15.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Apple Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.87%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several research analysts have recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Jefferies Financial Group restated an "underperform" rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Apple from $265.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Moffett Nathanson reissued a "sell" rating and set a $188.00 target price (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $245.26.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Apple
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apple
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $349,532,608,000 after buying an additional 49,168,843 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 5.3% in 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 raised its position in Apple by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $84,999,145,000 after purchasing an additional 6,307,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at about $46,868,648,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Apple Company Profile
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Get Free Report)
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.
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