Lakeside Advisors INC. Increases Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Lakeside Advisors INC. lifted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 10,497 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 213 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 1.7% of Lakeside Advisors INC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Lakeside Advisors INC.’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Prakash Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $7,801,000. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc boosted its holdings in Apple by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc now owns 59,156 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,814,000 after acquiring an additional 804 shares during the last quarter. Bear Mountain Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Bear Mountain Capital Inc. now owns 1,559 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $390,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 38,195 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $9,100,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morningstar Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 30.7% in the fourth quarter. Morningstar Investment Management LLC now owns 194,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $48,810,000 after acquiring an additional 45,801 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $941,214. This represents a 50.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AAPL. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $202.33 to $167.88 in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Apple from $325.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $263.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $234.31.

Apple Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $210.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $215.01 and a 200-day moving average of $229.19. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.11 and a 52 week 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.

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%. Analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.87%.

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.