AGF Management Ltd. Has $158.34 Million Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

AGF Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 34.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 632,279 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after acquiring an additional 161,715 shares during the period. AGF Management Ltd.'s holdings in Apple were worth $158,335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Amara Financial LLC. bought a new position in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $288,000. Simmons Bank boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 132,641 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $30,905,000 after purchasing an additional 2,086 shares in the last quarter. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 3rd quarter worth about $4,972,000. SYM FINANCIAL Corp boosted its position in Apple by 6.3% in the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 28,626 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $6,670,000 after buying an additional 1,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its position in Apple by 2.9% in the third quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,723,104 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $876,483,000 after buying an additional 103,856 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. The trade was a 17.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Maxim Group lifted their target price on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. KeyCorp upgraded Apple from an "underweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Scotiabank cut Apple to a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. DA Davidson raised their target price on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.80.

Apple Trading Down 3.0%

Shares of AAPL stock traded down $6.09 on Friday, hitting $195.27. The stock had a trading volume of 78,299,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,255,650. 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 twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $205.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $225.95. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally 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. This is an increase from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.20%.

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.