Fayez Sarofim & Co Acquires 305,254 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Fayez Sarofim & Co increased its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,955,747 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 305,254 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 9.2% of Fayez Sarofim & Co’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Fayez Sarofim & Co owned about 0.10% of Apple worth $2,631,103,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. St. James Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 98.3% in the fourth quarter. St. James Investment Advisors LLC now owns 236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Cheyne Capital Management UK LLP grew its position in Apple by 200.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cheyne Capital Management UK LLP now owns 275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $212,000 after acquiring an additional 550 shares in the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its stake in Apple by 21.7% during the first quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 448 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $60,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $93,000. 58.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 15,419 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,363,619.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Down 3.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $182.91 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 30.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $124.17 and a 1-year high of $198.23. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $186.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.06.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The iPhone maker reported $1.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $81.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.79 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 164.92% and a net margin of 24.68%. The business’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.05 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AAPL shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Apple from $195.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. 51job reiterated a “maintains” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, June 2nd. Bank of America upped their price target on Apple from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. UBS Group cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $190.00 in a research note on Monday, June 12th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Apple from $185.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $198.86.

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.