Brown Financial Advisors Sells 858 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Brown Financial Advisors decreased its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 18,690 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 858 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 1.9% of Brown Financial Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Brown Financial Advisors’ holdings in Apple were worth $4,680,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Drystone LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new stake in Apple during the 3rd quarter valued at $71,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in Apple during the 3rd quarter valued at $77,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $96,000. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth $110,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s 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 approximately $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total value of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This represents a 8.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140 in the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $205.35 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month 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 $3.08 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s 50 day moving average is $212.15 and its 200 day moving average is $228.61.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.53 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.87%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. China Renaissance started coverage on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $241.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.17.

Apple Company 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.