Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Bought by CCM Investment Advisers LLC

CCM Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 126,092 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 923 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 2.8% of CCM Investment Advisers LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. CCM Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $25,870,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 0.4% during 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted 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 worth $39,065,374,000 after purchasing an additional 205,656,808 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Apple by 13.3% during 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. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 104,706,358 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $26,220,566,000 after purchasing an additional 13,137,968 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, 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 owned 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $842,412,558.95. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total value of $11,071,116.07. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. This trade represents a 23.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 254,922 shares of company stock valued at $64,320,190 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AAPL. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $205.82 to $205.16 in a research note on Friday. Phillip Securities downgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $240.00 target price (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Loop Capital cut their target price on Apple from $230.00 to $226.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Three 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $247.49.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $258.02 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.83 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $233.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $214.69.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. The business 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%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given 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 yield of 0.4%. Apple’s payout ratio 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.