Advisory Alpha LLC Grows Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Advisory Alpha LLC increased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 23.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,604 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 15,884 shares during the quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $15,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. grew its stake in Apple by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. now owns 11,464 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,963,000 after buying an additional 598 shares during the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC lifted its position in Apple by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 172,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $29,589,000 after acquiring an additional 20,737 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC lifted its position in Apple by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,236,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its position in Apple by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 75,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,461,000 after acquiring an additional 10,425 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS lifted its position in Apple by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 4,307,068 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $829,240,000 after acquiring an additional 279,311 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAPL. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Apple from $215.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Maxim Group began coverage on Apple in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. They set a “hold” rating and a $178.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen 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 MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $203.05.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $169.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $173.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $181.85. The company has a market capitalization of $2.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.46, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $162.80 and a fifty-two week high of $199.62.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $119.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $117.99 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. Apple’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.88 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. Apple’s payout ratio is 14.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $84,378,155.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total value of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.