Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. Purchases 142 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,855 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,406,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 valued at $311,157,662,000 after acquiring an additional 5,005,297 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,999,145,000 after purchasing an additional 6,307,413 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth approximately $46,868,648,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Apple by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,918,365,000 after acquiring 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 position in Apple by 14.3% during 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 worth $26,220,566,000 after acquiring an additional 13,137,968 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of 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 objective on shares of Apple and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Moffett Nathanson upgraded shares of Apple from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $266.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Two equities 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.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.74.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $245.50 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $224.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $212.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $3.64 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.11. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 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%.

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.