L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Sells 1,249 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP reduced its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 284,844 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,249 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 6.8% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Apple were worth $54,841,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Atlantic Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Wyrmwood Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 69.0% in the fourth quarter. Wyrmwood Management LLC now owns 169 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 16,252.3% in the first quarter. Summit Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,992,420 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 6,949,659 shares in the last quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 21.7% in the first quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 448 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp grew its stake in shares of Apple by 70.2% in the third quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 509 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.08.

Apple Stock Down 2.2 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $172.69 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $162.80 and a one year high of $199.62. The company has a market cap of $2.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 26.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.27.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. The firm had revenue of $119.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.88 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. Apple’s payout ratio is 14.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total transaction of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total transaction of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.