Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 17,677 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,403,000. Apple accounts for 3.3% of Meadow Creek Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest holding.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $221,753,959,000 after purchasing an additional 8,734,393 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 116,483.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $74,002,245,000 after buying an additional 569,066,184 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 2.2% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 291,538,165 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $56,396,763,000 after buying an additional 6,367,053 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 234,017,381 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $38,589,468,000 after buying an additional 7,736,013 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Apple by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $27,110,586,000 after acquiring an additional 25,926,552 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AAPL shares. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $189.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.08.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $176.55 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.73 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $176.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $182.15. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $161.42 and a one year high of $199.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $119.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.16% and a return on equity of 156.04%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.88 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Investors of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 14.95%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares in the company, valued at $802,392,181.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $574,260,512.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 253,915 shares of company stock worth $44,202,868 in the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.