Apple Inc. $AAPL is Chico Wealth RIA’s 8th Largest Position

Chico Wealth RIA cut its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,393 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 217 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 0.9% of Chico Wealth RIA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Chico Wealth RIA’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $311,157,662,000 after purchasing 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 valued at $84,999,145,000 after purchasing an additional 6,307,413 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in Apple by 573,627.2% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $39,065,374,000 after buying an additional 205,656,808 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $46,868,648,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position 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 valued at $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Bank of America increased 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. Melius Research set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Apple from $190.67 to $205.82 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Apple from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.51.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $255.45 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.76, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $231.34 and a 200 day moving average of $214.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.