Elevation Capital Advisory LLC Acquires Shares of 2,166 Apple Inc. $AAPL

Elevation Capital Advisory LLC bought a new position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,166 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $444,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ryan Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% during the 1st quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its holdings in Apple by 333.3% during the 2nd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 260 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Elite Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Apple in the first quarter worth $58,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management bought a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter worth $65,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Apple from $180.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Phillip Securities lowered Apple from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating and set a $200.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $226.00 to $315.00 in a report on Monday, October 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.22.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 129,963 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $842,412,558.95. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 8,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,168,373.35. The trade was a 32.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 228,052 shares of company stock valued at $58,604,588 over the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $267.44 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $257.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $227.87. 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 one year low of $169.21 and a one year high of $277.32. The firm has a market cap of $3.95 trillion, a PE ratio of 40.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.09.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The iPhone maker reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $102.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $101.65 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.64 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

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.