Apple Inc. $AAPL is Trust Co of the South’s 8th Largest Position

Trust Co of the South increased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 85,907 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 3.1% of Trust Co of the South’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Trust Co of the South’s holdings in Apple were worth $17,626,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 1st quarter worth $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $133,425,490,000 after acquiring an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Apple by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after acquiring an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL opened at $238.99 on Thursday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $223.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $212.36. The company has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.11. 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released 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 return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were paid 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 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.78%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley set a $240.00 price target on Apple and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Apple from $190.67 to $205.82 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Phillip Securities downgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 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 $30,508,538.40. This trade represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 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.