Petredis Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Petredis Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 212,297 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,542 shares during the period. Apple makes up 3.8% of Petredis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $43,557,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,260,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Salus Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 3.9% in the first quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $291,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Sharpepoint LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 3.5% in the first quarter. Sharpepoint LLC now owns 1,523 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $322,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp lifted its stake in Apple by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 8,720 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,184,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 1.3% in the first quarter. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC now owns 4,016 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $892,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at $30,508,538.40. This represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on AAPL. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Apple from $223.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Wedbush set a $310.00 target price on Apple and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $245.51.

Apple Trading Up 0.1%

AAPL stock opened at $254.63 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. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $230.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $213.80. 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 $3.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.11.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s payout ratio is 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.