Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Purchased by Williams Financial LLC

Key Points

• Williams Financial LLC increased its stake in Apple Inc. by 145.4% in Q2, holding 7,449 shares valued at approximately $1.53 million.
• Notable increases in stake were also reported from Kingstone Capital Partners (up 573,627%) and Vanguard Group (up 3.7%), showcasing significant institutional investment in AAPL.
• Apple recently disclosed a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share with a annualized yield of 0.4%, and reported a positive earnings performance exceeding analyst estimates.

Williams Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 145.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,449 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after acquiring an additional 4,414 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 1.7% of Williams Financial LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Williams Financial LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $1,528,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 573,627.2% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $39,065,374,000 after buying an additional 205,656,808 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter valued at $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after buying an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after buying an additional 49,168,843 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 34,821 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $254.43 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.11. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $229.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $213.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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. Apple had a return on equity of 170.91% and a net margin of 24.30%.The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $240.00 price target on Apple and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $240.00 price target (up previously from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Apple from $190.67 to $205.82 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $245.66.

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.

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