Davis Investment Partners LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Davis Investment Partners LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,772 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 426 shares during the period. Apple comprises approximately 1.9% of Davis Investment Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Davis Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Drystone LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. Conquis Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $63,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $65,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $82,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 4,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $941,214. This represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Down 1.2%

Apple stock opened at $208.62 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $203.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $216.50. 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 company has a market cap of $3.12 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.50, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10.

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

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. 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 payout ratio is currently 16.20%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AAPL. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their target price on shares of Apple to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Apple from $245.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.27.

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.