Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Trading Down 1.5% – Here’s Why

by · The Markets Daily

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPLGet Free Report) fell 1.5% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $289.62 and last traded at $291.13. 38,474,479 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 20% from the average session volume of 47,798,836 shares. The stock had previously closed at $295.63.

Apple News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on AAPL. KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $276.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $314.59.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on AAPL

Apple Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $284.93 and its 200 day moving average is $272.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPLGet Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $111.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.46 billion. Apple had a net margin of 27.15% and a return on equity of 146.69%. The company’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 8.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Investors of record on Monday, May 11th were given a $0.27 dividend. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s payout ratio is 13.06%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 30,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total value of $7,661,010.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,810 shares in the company, valued at $34,934,433.50. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total transaction of $369,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 38,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,226,770. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 97,759 shares of company stock valued at $24,964,305. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apple

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $52,266,468,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at about $17,472,482,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 890.7% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 41,984,810 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,413,990,000 after purchasing an additional 37,746,784 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased 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 valued at $5,553,753,000 after purchasing an additional 26,937,401 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 valued at $387,749,545,000 after purchasing an additional 26,856,752 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Apple

(Get Free Report)

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.

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