Apella Capital LLC Acquires 70,529 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Apella Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 62.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 184,366 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 70,529 shares during the period. Apple comprises 1.0% of Apella Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Apella Capital LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $38,708,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Boltwood Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 36,204 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,428,000 after buying an additional 2,098 shares during the last quarter. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 20,724 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,252,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 465,265 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $95,458,000 after buying an additional 24,931 shares during the last quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 10.4% during the 2nd quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC now owns 70,788 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,524,000 after buying an additional 6,696 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 929,883 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $190,784,000 after buying an additional 2,969 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $266.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $223.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Barclays increased their price objective 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. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $242.74.

Apple Stock Up 3.2%

Apple stock opened at $245.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.11. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $224.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $212.42.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share 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 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 was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. As a group, analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.78%.

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.