Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 62,001 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 240 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 5.4% of Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $13,772,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fischer Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the first quarter. Fischer Financial Services Inc. now owns 127,334 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $28,284,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the period. J.P. Marvel Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 2.5% during the first quarter. J.P. Marvel Investment Advisors LLC now owns 185,707 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $41,251,000 after buying an additional 4,449 shares in the last quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. boosted its holdings in Apple by 12.6% during the first quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 631,655 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $140,461,000 after buying an additional 70,669 shares in the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Apple by 631.1% in the 1st quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 94,932 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $21,087,000 after purchasing an additional 81,947 shares during the period. Finally, Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Apple in the 1st quarter worth approximately $273,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $266.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $217.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $240.00 price target (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.73.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. This represents a 20.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $238.47 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.54 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $217.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $212.92.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.