Apple Inc. $AAPL is Argentarii LLC’s 3rd Largest Position

Argentarii LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 60,429 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 252 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 5.7% of Argentarii LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest position. Argentarii LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $12,398,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 573,627.2% during 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Apple during the first quarter worth about $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 25,934.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $133,425,490,000 after buying an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. Moffett Nathanson upgraded shares of Apple from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Melius Research set a $290.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Apple from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated an “underperform” rating and set a $205.16 target price (down previously from $205.82) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $247.49.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total transaction of $11,071,116.07. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. This trade represents a 23.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.81, for a total transaction of $33,375,798.03. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $842,412,558.95. This trade represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 254,922 shares of company stock valued at $64,320,190. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Apple stock opened at $258.02 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.83 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.15, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $233.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $214.69.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.40 earnings per share. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share 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 paid 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 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.