Instrumental Wealth LLC Acquires 886 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Instrumental Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 11.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,411 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 886 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 1.6% of Instrumental Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Instrumental Wealth LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,760,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Horizon Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 20,644.1% in the 1st quarter. Horizon Financial Services LLC now owns 747,203 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $165,976,000 after purchasing an additional 743,601 shares in the last quarter. Equita Financial Network Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 53.2% in the first quarter. Equita Financial Network Inc. now owns 7,116 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,581,000 after acquiring an additional 2,471 shares during the period. Swmg LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 7.7% in the first quarter. Swmg LLC now owns 7,656 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after acquiring an additional 545 shares during the period. Krane Funds Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 16.1% in the first quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 10,508 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,334,000 after acquiring an additional 1,455 shares during the period. Finally, Penobscot Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the first quarter. Penobscot Wealth Management now owns 12,243 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,720,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Apple

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Scotiabank lowered Apple to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. China Renaissance started coverage on Apple in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $241.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $237.60.

Apple Trading Down 0.3%

AAPL opened at $230.89 on Tuesday. The stock 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. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $210.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $212.94. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $169.21 and a one year high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

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.