Clare Market Investments LLC Takes Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Clare Market Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 260,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $65,338,000. Apple accounts for 15.5% of Clare Market Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its largest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Waverton Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in Apple by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 419,435 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $97,726,000 after purchasing an additional 15,413 shares during the period. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 32.6% in the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 356,886 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $83,154,000 after purchasing an additional 87,839 shares during the period. Apollon Financial LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 62,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,563,000 after purchasing an additional 802 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lifted its position in Apple by 23.9% during the 3rd quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 499,426 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $116,265,000 after buying an additional 96,362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 34,486,195 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,035,283,000 after buying an additional 432,140 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Maxim Group boosted their price target on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer cut shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $270.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares in the company, valued at $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 1.2%

AAPL opened at $208.78 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.21 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 $3.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $205.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $226.57.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.53 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.20%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.