Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is RPG Investment Advisory LLC’s 4th Largest Position

RPG Investment Advisory LLC cut its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 117,328 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 10,256 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 3.7% of RPG Investment Advisory LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. RPG Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $22,589,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Wyrmwood Management LLC increased 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 worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 118.0% in the fourth quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC now owns 218 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp increased 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 worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Cordant Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 27.7% in the third quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 645 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $110,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth $111,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Itau BBA Securities raised shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised 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 note on Monday, April 29th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, March 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.11.

Apple Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $184.57 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $2.85 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $172.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $181.79. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $199.62.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.55%.

Apple announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total transaction of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

About Apple

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.