BCS Wealth Management Buys 7,701 Shares of Apple Inc. $AAPL

BCS Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 44.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,987 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,701 shares during the period. Apple comprises approximately 1.1% of BCS Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. BCS Wealth Management’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,127,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Ryan Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1,800.0% in the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Conquis Financial LLC bought a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,000. LSV Asset Management bought a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter worth approximately $65,000. Finally, Elite Financial Inc. bought a new position in Apple in the first quarter worth approximately $58,000. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. Barclays boosted 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. HSBC set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Apple and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $247.49.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.81, for a total value of $33,375,798.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $842,412,558.95. This trade represents a 3.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total value of $11,071,116.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,181,866.93. The trade was a 23.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 254,922 shares of company stock valued at $64,320,190. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 0.3%

AAPL opened at $258.02 on Monday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a market cap 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 company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $233.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $214.69.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. Apple’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.78%.

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.