Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Sold by Peirce Capital Management LLC

Peirce Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 35.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,000 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 540 shares during the period. Peirce Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% during the first 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. increased its holdings in Apple by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $349,532,608,000 after buying an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Apple by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Melius Research set a $290.00 price objective on Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on Apple from $245.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.74.

Apple Stock Up 3.2%

AAPL stock opened at $245.50 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.64 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.25, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.11. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $224.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $212.42.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 payout ratio 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.