L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Has $63.28 Million Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP reduced its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 252,681 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,887 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 7.4% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Apple were worth $63,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Drystone LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Bull Oak Capital LLC increased its stake in Apple by 252.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda acquired a new stake in Apple during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $71,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new position in Apple in the 3rd quarter worth $77,000. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter worth about $110,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,072,269.86. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 182,451 shares of company stock worth $40,818,720. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Up 2.2 %

AAPL opened at $202.52 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.08 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The company has a market cap of $3.04 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s 50 day moving average is $222.27 and its 200-day moving average is $230.99.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. Equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAPL. Wedbush reduced their price target on Apple from $325.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. KeyCorp upgraded Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $263.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.85.

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.