Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Purchased by Scharf Investments LLC

Scharf Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,668 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 536 shares during the period. Scharf Investments LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,804,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in Apple by 573,627.2% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $39,065,374,000 after buying an additional 205,656,808 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 1st quarter valued at about $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Apple by 13.3% in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $266.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Barclays lifted 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. Wedbush set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley set a $298.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $290.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $247.51.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $257.13 on Friday. 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 has a market capitalization of $3.82 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.02, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $232.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $214.38. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.78%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.