Acorn Creek Capital LLC Purchases 804 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Acorn Creek Capital LLC grew its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,024 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 804 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 2.2% of Acorn Creek Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. Acorn Creek Capital LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,200,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Apple in the first quarter worth $3,026,492,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 14,145.8% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,603,000 after buying an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in shares of Apple by 158.3% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 11,532,438 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,977,582,000 after acquiring an additional 7,067,379 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 161.2% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,759,445 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,502,068,000 after acquiring an additional 5,405,542 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth about $834,368,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AAPL shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Evercore ISI reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.68.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $242.84 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $230.23 and a 200-day moving average of $221.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $244.63.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its 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 the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. Company 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.