Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 9,428 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 9,428 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $2,361,000. Apple makes up about 3.6% of Lakeshore Capital Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,260,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 3,775 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $945,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Family Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Family Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,910 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,235,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 16,682 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,178,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Scarborough Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Scarborough Advisors LLC now owns 15,940 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,992,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AAPL. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $170.62 target price (up from $167.88) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, China Renaissance began coverage on Apple in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $241.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $234.86.

Apple Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of AAPL opened at $201.00 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $202.35 and a 200 day moving average of $221.71. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.53 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. 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 initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $941,214. The trade was a 50.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their position. 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 quarter. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company 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.