Perpetual Ltd Invests $13.61 Million in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 82,523 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $13,608,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Starfox Financial Services LLC lifted its position in Apple by 21.5% during the 4th quarter. Starfox Financial Services LLC now owns 1,900 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the period. Arista Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Apple by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Arista Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,680 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,399,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares during the period. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. lifted its position in Apple by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Factory Mutual Insurance Co. now owns 2,340,129 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $304,053,000 after acquiring an additional 115,929 shares during the period. Brogan Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $1,874,000. Finally, Peddock Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Apple by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC now owns 115,970 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $19,123,000 after acquiring an additional 901 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. DA Davidson cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $193.00 to $185.00 in a research report on Monday, June 5th. Piper Jaffray Companies boosted their price objective on Apple from $180.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Apple from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Apple from $149.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 4th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $198.86.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $189.46 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.28. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $124.17 and a 1 year high of $198.23. The company’s fifty day moving average is $186.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The iPhone maker reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $81.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $81.79 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.68% and a return on equity of 164.92%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th were issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 11th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 15,419 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.56, for a total value of $2,753,216.64. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,363,619.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by 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.