May Barnhard Investments LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

May Barnhard Investments LLC grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,230 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 558 shares during the quarter. May Barnhard Investments LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,050,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AAPL. Burkett Financial Services LLC raised its position in Apple by 0.6% in the first quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 14,401 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,199,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Apple by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,332 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,337,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares during the period. TruWealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Apple by 2.8% in the first quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC now owns 189,282 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,045,000 after purchasing an additional 5,120 shares during the period. Allstate Corp raised its position in Apple by 3,368.2% in the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 451,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $113,062,000 after purchasing an additional 438,471 shares during the period. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of Apple by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 764,075 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $192,700,000 after acquiring an additional 83,997 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were 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 directly owned 4,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the insider directly owned 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $208.62 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $3.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $203.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $216.50.

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. 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on AAPL shares. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on shares of Apple to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. UBS Group set a $210.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $217.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Two 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.27.

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.