Stone House Investment Management LLC Increases Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 13.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,729 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 793 shares during the period. Apple makes up approximately 0.3% of Stone House Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Stone House Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,495,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,400,790,809 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $311,157,662,000 after buying an additional 5,005,297 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,999,145,000 after buying an additional 6,307,413 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,868,648,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 104,706,358 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $26,220,566,000 after purchasing an additional 13,137,968 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AAPL. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $217.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Moffett Nathanson upgraded Apple from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. HSBC set a $220.00 price objective on Apple and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.99.

Apple Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $234.35 on Wednesday. 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. The company has a market capitalization of $3.48 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $220.46 and its 200 day moving average is $212.50.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The company had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total value of $7,772,047.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,508,538.40. This represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.