Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Purchased by Perritt Capital Management Inc

Perritt Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 821 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Perritt Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Apple were worth $206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. WESCAP Management Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 229.4% during the fourth quarter. WESCAP Management Group Inc. now owns 76,278 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $19,102,000 after purchasing an additional 53,123 shares during the period. DKM Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth $5,345,000. Private Portfolio Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Private Portfolio Partners LLC now owns 55,689 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,946,000 after acquiring an additional 335 shares during the period. RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $7,191,000. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 323,157 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $80,925,000 after acquiring an additional 7,741 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on AAPL. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial raised 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. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Sunday, June 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.86.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL opened at $202.67 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $200.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $223.77. The firm has a market cap of $3.03 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.17, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.22. 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.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.53 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.20%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,072,269.86. This trade represents a 17.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.