4WEALTH Advisors Inc. Invests $2.86 Million in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

4WEALTH Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 11,401 shares of the iPhone maker's stock, valued at approximately $2,855,000. Apple comprises approximately 2.9% of 4WEALTH Advisors Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Drystone LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Conquis Financial LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $63,000. LSV Asset Management acquired a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $65,000. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the third quarter valued at about $71,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $82,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total transaction of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 15,533 shares in the company, valued at $3,233,815.27. This trade represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on AAPL. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Apple from an "underweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Rosenblatt Securities downgraded shares of Apple from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $217.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Loop Capital dropped their target price on Apple from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Sunday, June 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $234.86.

Apple Trading Up 0.9%

AAPL stock traded up $1.79 during trading on Monday, hitting $198.24. The company had a trading volume of 7,788,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 54,560,644. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $201.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $222.93. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.41, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.22.

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

Apple announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.52%. This is a boost from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.20%.

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.