Friday Financial Acquires 1,401 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

Friday Financial lifted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,303 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,401 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 1.9% of Friday Financial’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Friday Financial’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,755,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,400,790,809 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $311,157,662,000 after purchasing an additional 5,005,297 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.9% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 573,627.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $39,065,374,000 after purchasing an additional 205,656,808 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,868,648,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Apple in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price objective on the stock. Loop Capital lowered their price target on Apple from $230.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on Apple from $245.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report 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 report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $247.51.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Up 0.7%

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $257.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.82 trillion, a price-to-earnings 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. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% 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 research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company 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 was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 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.