Phillips Financial Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Phillips Financial Management LLC lifted its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,593 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 425 shares during the quarter. Phillips Financial Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Drystone LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the third quarter valued at approximately $71,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in Apple in the 3rd quarter valued at $77,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered their price target on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “cautious” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, May 5th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on Apple from $197.00 to $173.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Four equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.80.

Apple Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $195.27 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $205.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $225.92.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.53 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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 issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. 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 declared that its Board of Directors has approved 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares in the company, valued at $941,214. The trade was a 50.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $87,377,116.59. This represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.