Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Peak Asset Management LLC’s Largest Position

Peak Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 133,641 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 485 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 5.4% of Peak Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Peak Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $22,037,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AAPL. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 116,483.5% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $74,002,245,000 after purchasing an additional 569,066,184 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter worth about $21,746,940,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Apple by 14.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $27,110,586,000 after acquiring an additional 25,926,552 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $221,753,959,000 after acquiring an additional 8,734,393 shares during the period. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,075,599,000. 58.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AAPL. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, August 4th. UBS Group cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Monday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Apple from $225.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Apple from $190.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $198.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 15,419 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.56, for a total transaction of $2,753,216.64. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,363,619.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 3.6 %

AAPL stock opened at $182.91 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $186.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.06. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $124.17 and a fifty-two week high of $198.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The iPhone maker reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $81.80 billion during 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 business’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 11th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.13%.

About Apple

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.