Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Issues Earnings Results

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. The business had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis.

Apple Trading Up 6.0 %

NASDAQ:AAPL traded up $10.35 on Friday, reaching $183.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 163,110,196 shares, compared to its average volume of 62,045,676. Apple has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $199.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $172.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $181.57. The firm has a market cap of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Apple from $158.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Apple from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Apple from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday. DZ Bank restated a “hold” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Itau BBA Securities raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.72.

Apple announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that allows the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,378,155.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.