Sierra Capital LLC Sells 1,769 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Sierra Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 110,506 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,769 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 3.0% of Sierra Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Sierra Capital LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $24,547,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Burkett Financial Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.6% in the 1st 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 period. Avid Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 28.3% in the 1st 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 period. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 4.6% in the 4th 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 period. TruWealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.8% in the 1st 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 period. Finally, Allstate Corp increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 3,368.2% in the 4th 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 period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Apple

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $240.00 target price (up previously from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Apple from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.98.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $227.16 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average of $213.09 and a 200-day moving average of $212.81. The firm has a market cap of $3.37 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.16.

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

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

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.