Charles Schwab Investment Advisory Inc. Grows Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Charles Schwab Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,723 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 662 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Advisory Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,109,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in 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 worth $74,002,245,000 after buying an additional 569,066,184 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth approximately $21,746,940,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Apple by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $27,110,586,000 after purchasing an additional 25,926,552 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 141.9% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 22,670,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,594,737,000 after purchasing an additional 13,298,207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $221,753,959,000 after purchasing an additional 8,734,393 shares in the last quarter. 58.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $177.56 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $124.17 and a twelve month high of $198.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The company has a market capitalization of $2.78 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.84, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $186.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.09.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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 transaction of $2,753,216.64. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,363,619.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 11th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Apple from $210.00 to $225.00 in a report on Friday, June 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Apple from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, 58.com reaffirmed a “maintains” rating on shares of Apple in a 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 MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $198.86.

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.