Apple Inc. $AAPL Stock Position Lifted by Davis Investment Partners LLC

Key Points

• Davis Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Apple Inc. by 8.2% in Q2, totaling 23,555 shares valued at approximately $4.9 million, making Apple its 10th largest holding.
• Insider selling occurred when SVP Deirdre O'Brien sold over 34,000 shares at an average price of $223.20, reducing her position in the company by 20.3%.
• Several analysts adjusted their price targets for Apple's stock, with Tigress Financial setting a new price objective at $305 and the overall consensus price target at $242.74.

Davis Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,555 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after buying an additional 1,783 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 1.8% of Davis Investment Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Davis Investment Partners LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $4,895,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 2.1% in the second quarter. Braun Bostich & Associates Inc. now owns 6,855 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $1,406,000 after buying an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Adamsbrown Wealth Consultants LLC now owns 26,501 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,437,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Ransom Advisory Ltd boosted its stake in Apple by 2.0% in the second quarter. Ransom Advisory Ltd now owns 95,060 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $19,504,000 after buying an additional 1,896 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 9.3% in the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 17,530 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $3,597,000 after buying an additional 1,492 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Wealthcare LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 1.1% in the second quarter. Beacon Wealthcare LLC now owns 5,108 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $1,048,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 34,821 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total value of $7,772,047.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. This represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AAPL. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. DA Davidson reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on Apple from $245.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $244.03.

Apple Trading Down 0.5%

AAPL stock traded down $1.32 on Tuesday, reaching $254.76. The company's stock had a trading volume of 30,536,489 shares, compared to its average volume of 57,417,355. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $225.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $212.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.67, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.11. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $88.64 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Apple's dividend payout ratio is 15.78%.

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.