Columbia River Financial Group LLC Acquires New Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Columbia River Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $492,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 111,858 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $28,012,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050 shares during the last quarter. Strathmore Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth $1,221,000. One Wealth Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth $2,452,000. Range Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 66.3% in the fourth quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 7,912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,981,000 after acquiring an additional 3,153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legend Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 7,982 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,999,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Maxim Group raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was 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. The trade was a 3.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. The trade was a 17.81% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $196.58 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $202.17 and its 200-day moving average is $222.30. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $2.94 trillion, a PE 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 quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a return on equity of 167.24% and a net margin of 24.30%. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share 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 given a $0.26 dividend. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 16.20%.

Apple announced that its board has approved 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 purchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.