Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Bought by Latitude Advisors LLC

Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,371 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 398 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 1.5% of Latitude Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Latitude Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,526,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,260,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 3.9% during the first quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Investments LLC raised its stake in Apple by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Disciplined Investments LLC now owns 7,166 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,794,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp raised its stake in Apple by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 8,720 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,184,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1.3% during the first quarter. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC now owns 4,016 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $892,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on AAPL shares. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $217.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.60.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total value of $7,772,047.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. This trade represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $230.89 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $210.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $212.94. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.16.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%. The business had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.78%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.