Portside Wealth Group LLC Buys New Shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Portside Wealth Group LLC bought a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,838,235 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $356,559,000. Apple makes up 1.5% of Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 569,066,184 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter worth $21,746,940,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in 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 during the period. Berkshire Hathaway Inc boosted its position in Apple by 2.3% during the first quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 915,560,382 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $150,975,907,000 after purchasing an additional 20,424,207 shares during the period. Finally, Providence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Apple by 16,638.6% during the first quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 15,593,974 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $94,566,000 after purchasing an additional 15,500,812 shares during the period. 58.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 65,536 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.11, for a total value of $11,279,400.96. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,445 shares in the company, valued at $23,483,548.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 65,536 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.11, for a total value of $11,279,400.96. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,445 shares in the company, valued at $23,483,548.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 240,569 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.50, for a total value of $41,498,152.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,053 shares in the company, valued at $565,809,142.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 567,839 shares of company stock worth $100,675,794 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Credit Suisse Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, September 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of Apple from $198.00 to $189.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $198.25.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $191.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $177.15 and its 200-day moving average is $181.03. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $124.17 and a 1-year high of $198.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $89.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $89.34 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.78% and a net margin of 25.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.29 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 16th. Investors of record on Monday, November 13th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.69%.

Apple 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.