apricus wealth LLC Has $3.42 Million Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

apricus wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,392 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 2.0% of apricus wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. apricus wealth LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,419,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Drystone LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $63,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $65,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $82,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on AAPL. UBS Group set a $210.00 price target on shares of Apple and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on Apple to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 10th. Barclays set a $173.00 target price on Apple and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Raymond James Financial cut their price target on Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.27.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $208.62 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.12 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.50, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $203.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $216.50.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.04 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 167.24%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.53 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.20%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 4,569 shares in the company, valued at $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 15,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.