Baillie Gifford & Co. Purchases 75,166 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 820,871 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 75,166 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co.’s holdings in Apple were worth $205,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Drystone LLC acquired a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Bull Oak Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 252.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth $47,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new position in Apple during the third quarter worth about $71,000. Finally, Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new position in Apple in the third quarter valued at about $77,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. Barclays raised their price target on Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $236.00.

Apple Stock Up 3.4 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $199.74 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $217.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $229.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.92 and a 52 week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS 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%. On average, analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.87%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This trade represents a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.