Archford Capital Strategies LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Archford Capital Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 13.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 101,564 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 12,394 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 2.7% of Archford Capital Strategies LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Archford Capital Strategies LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $20,838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 1st quarter valued at $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after buying an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of 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. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 27.4% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 68,190,569 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,870,795,000 after buying an additional 14,651,321 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AAPL. BMO Capital Markets restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, CLSA raised Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $248.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of the business’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $842,412,558.95. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 43,013 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 254,922 shares of company stock valued at $64,320,190. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $247.45 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $240.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $216.66. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.09.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The business had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. Apple’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s payout ratio is 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.