Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Position Lowered by Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 66.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 77,400 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 155,313 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 2.5% of Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $14,902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,119,470,000 after acquiring an additional 70,212,651 shares in the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $560,388,000. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Apple in the third quarter valued at approximately $487,435,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Apple by 6.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 49,759,061 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,519,244,000 after purchasing an additional 2,826,709 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 206,732,960 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $35,394,751,000 after buying an additional 2,018,010 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays lifted their target price on Apple from $158.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday. DZ Bank reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Finally, Redburn Partners lowered shares of Apple to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.11.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $181.71 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market cap of $2.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $199.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $172.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $181.72.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The business had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.93%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to buyback $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company 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.