Fairway Wealth LLC Purchases 4,011 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Fairway Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 362.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,118 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,011 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 0.5% of Fairway Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Fairway Wealth LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,282,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AAPL. Drystone LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter valued at about $71,000. Pillar Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $82,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in Apple in the third quarter worth approximately $77,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $96,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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. Insiders have sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AAPL. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, May 12th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Maxim Group raised their price objective on Apple to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Apple from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.80.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $206.86 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $205.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $226.43. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.09 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.83, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released 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. The company had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.20%.

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.