Hofer & Associates. Inc Buys 765 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Hofer & Associates. Inc increased its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 3.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,060 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 765 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 3.4% of Hofer & Associates. Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Hofer & Associates. Inc’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,187,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Robinson Value Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Apple during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 75.4% during the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 249 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Cheyne Capital Management UK LLP increased its stake in shares of Apple by 200.0% during the third quarter. Cheyne Capital Management UK LLP now owns 275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares in the last quarter. Ramsey Quantitative Systems bought a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the third quarter valued at approximately $55,000. 57.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $155.00 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $146.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $145.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.45 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.30. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $124.17 and a 1-year high of $179.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.93 by ($0.05). Apple had a return on equity of 163.45% and a net margin of 24.56%. The business had revenue of $117.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $121.67 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.10 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Investors of record on Monday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AAPL shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Apple from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 8th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $170.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, March 10th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Apple from $167.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Apple in a research report on Sunday, March 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $199.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $168.24.

About Apple

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Apple, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and other varieties of related services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The Americas segment includes North and South America.