Cowa LLC Grows Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cowa LLC lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,298 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,715 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 4.0% of Cowa LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Cowa LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $7,652,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.8% in the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC lifted its position in Apple by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apple Trading Up 2.1 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $227.48 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $226.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $213.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.44 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.41, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,469,275. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 412,746 shares of company stock worth $93,021,362 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AAPL shares. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.51.

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.