Blue Sky Capital Consultants Group Inc. Takes $8.30 Million Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Blue Sky Capital Consultants Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 33,131 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $8,297,000. Apple makes up 5.0% of Blue Sky Capital Consultants Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of AAPL. Drystone LLC bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $63,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $65,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter worth approximately $82,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,533 shares in the company, valued at $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 value of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Apple stock opened at $196.58 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $202.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $222.30. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $2.94 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a return on equity of 167.24% and a net margin of 24.30%. The company had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.53 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAPL. KeyCorp raised Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Maxim Group upped their price target on Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank downgraded Apple to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.86.

Apple 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.