S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC Has $17.50 Million Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 90,893 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,356 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 7.1% of S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $17,500,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wyrmwood Management LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 69.0% in the 4th quarter. Wyrmwood Management LLC now owns 169 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Gilfoyle & Co LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 118.0% in the 4th quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC now owns 218 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. PayPay Securities Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 70.2% in the 3rd quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 509 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Cordant Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 645 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $110,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new position in Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $132,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Itau BBA Securities raised shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Apple from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Apple news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 366,271 shares of company stock worth $63,653,887. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $181.71 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s fifty day moving average is $172.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.72. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $199.62.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is 14.93%.

Apple declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.