Carrera Capital Advisors Boosts Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Carrera Capital Advisors boosted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 16.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,081 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after buying an additional 1,714 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 0.7% of Carrera Capital Advisors' portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Carrera Capital Advisors' holdings in Apple were worth $3,025,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Drystone LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth $47,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth $71,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth $77,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth $96,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer lowered Apple from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reduced their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $245.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Apple from $197.00 to $173.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $235.80.

Apple Trading Down 0.3%

AAPL stock traded down $0.60 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $212.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 49,235,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,032,102. The company has a market cap of $3.17 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. The business's 50 day moving average price is $207.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $227.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is an increase from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Apple's payout ratio is currently 16.20%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares of the company's stock, valued at $87,377,116.59. The trade was a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 over the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple 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.