Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC Has $16.88 Million Stake in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 75,991 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,043 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 6.4% of Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Liberty Square Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $16,880,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Burkett Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 0.6% in the first quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 14,401 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,199,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 28.3% in the first quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,211 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $935,000 after acquiring an additional 930 shares during the last quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,332 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,337,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 2.8% in the first quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC now owns 189,282 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,045,000 after acquiring an additional 5,120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allstate Corp raised its stake in shares of Apple by 3,368.2% in the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 451,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $113,062,000 after acquiring an additional 438,471 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Apple to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Two investment 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.98.

Apple Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $227.76 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $212.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $212.82. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $169.21 and a 52-week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 currently 15.78%.

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

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.