von Borstel & Associates Inc. Sells 139 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

von Borstel & Associates Inc. lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,425 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 139 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 0.3% of von Borstel & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. von Borstel & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Burkett Financial Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 14,401 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,199,000 after buying an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 28.3% during the 1st quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,211 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $935,000 after buying an additional 930 shares in the last quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,332 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,337,000 after buying an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC now owns 189,282 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,045,000 after buying an additional 5,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allstate Corp lifted its position in shares of Apple by 3,368.2% during the 4th quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 451,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $113,062,000 after buying an additional 438,471 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank cut shares of Apple to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Apple from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.98.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $224.90 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $211.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $213.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.34 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.13, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.16.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued 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 yield of 0.5%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.78%.

Apple declared that its board has authorized 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 usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.