Blankinship & Foster LLC Has $6.17 Million Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Blankinship & Foster LLC lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 88.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,622 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 192,665 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 1.5% of Blankinship & Foster LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Blankinship & Foster LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Amara Financial LLC. bought a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter worth $288,000. Simmons Bank increased its holdings in Apple by 1.6% in the third quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 132,641 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $30,905,000 after purchasing an additional 2,086 shares in the last quarter. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,972,000. SYM FINANCIAL Corp increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.3% during the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 28,626 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,670,000 after acquiring an additional 1,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.9% during the third quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,723,104 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $876,483,000 after acquiring an additional 103,856 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.1%

AAPL opened at $211.26 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a PE ratio of 33.53, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business has a 50 day moving average of $206.09 and a 200-day moving average of $226.66. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.53 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.20%.

Apple announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Scotiabank cut Apple to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, May 12th. Citigroup reissued a “cautious” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.