First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. Raises Stock Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 48.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,465 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,750 shares during the quarter. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ryan Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at $31,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC lifted its position in Apple by 1,800.0% during 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 during the period. Elite Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at about $58,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $65,000. Finally, HFM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 1st quarter valued at about $99,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.39, for a total transaction of $1,038,790.61. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 8,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,168,373.35. This trade represents a 32.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were 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 directly owned 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $842,412,558.95. This trade represents a 3.81% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 259,121 shares of company stock worth $65,358,981 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 0.0%

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $270.14 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.01 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.99, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.08. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $277.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $250.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $223.70. 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.11. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The company had revenue of $102.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.64 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 10th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 13.92%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $203.07 to $246.99 in a research note on Friday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $279.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $298.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.22.

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.