Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Bought by Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC

Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 61,056 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 3,103 shares during the quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $13,562,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacific Sun Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Pacific Sun Financial Corp now owns 46,037 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,226,000 after purchasing an additional 727 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 521,052 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $115,741,000 after purchasing an additional 7,251 shares during the period. Morey & Quinn Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Morey & Quinn Wealth Partners LLC now owns 30,329 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,737,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the period. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC now owns 165,160 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,687,000 after purchasing an additional 7,645 shares during the period. Finally, Dohj LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 10.3% during the 1st quarter. Dohj LLC now owns 23,616 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,246,000 after purchasing an additional 2,210 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AAPL. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays set a $173.00 price target on shares of Apple and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Scotiabank cut shares of Apple to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 4,569 shares in the company, valued at $941,214. This represents a 50.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 15,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% 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 Price Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $211.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.15 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company’s 50-day moving average is $204.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $215.85. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $260.10.

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 business had revenue of $95.36 billion for 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 company’s revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.53 EPS. Research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.20%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes 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 board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.