First Heartland Consultants Inc. Lowers Stake in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• First Heartland Consultants Inc. reduced its Apple stock position by 8.7%, owning 60,495 shares valued at approximately $13.44 million, which constitutes about 1.4% of its investment portfolio.
• Institutional investors hold 67.73% of Apple stock, with notable movements including GAMMA Investing LLC increasing its stake by over 25,900% to own 60 million shares worth $133 billion.
• Apple announced a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $1.04 and a yield of 0.4%, with a dividend payout ratio of 15.78%.

First Heartland Consultants Inc. reduced its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 8.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 60,495 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 5,772 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 1.4% of First Heartland Consultants Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. First Heartland Consultants Inc.'s holdings in Apple were worth $13,438,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Life Planning Partners Inc bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Elite Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Conquis Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter worth approximately $82,000. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AAPL. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Apple from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $239.05.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL traded down $0.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $239.69. The company's stock had a trading volume of 54,829,143 shares, compared to its average volume of 47,688,568. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.37, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.11. The business's fifty day moving average is $219.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $212.86.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.40 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were given 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 dividend payout ratio is 15.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 34,821 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total value of $7,772,047.20. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple Company 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.