Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Alapocas Investment Partners Inc.’s Largest Position

Alapocas Investment Partners Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 72,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,022 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 9.8% of Alapocas Investment Partners Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. Alapocas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $11,898,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $221,753,959,000 after purchasing an additional 8,734,393 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 116,483.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $74,002,245,000 after buying an additional 569,066,184 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 282,749,817 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,671,884,000 after buying an additional 2,991,299 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Apple by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 226,281,368 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $29,400,739,000 after buying an additional 1,417,827 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Apple by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $27,110,586,000 after buying an additional 25,926,552 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. Barclays upped their price target on Apple from $149.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Fundamental Research set a $183.86 price target on Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 17th. StockNews.com began coverage on Apple in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, 58.com reaffirmed a “maintains” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, June 5th. Ten research 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.86.

Apple Trading Down 2.9 %

AAPL stock opened at $177.56 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $186.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $124.17 and a 52-week high of $198.23. The firm has a market cap of $2.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.84, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 17th. Investors of record on Monday, August 14th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 11th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction of $2,753,216.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.