Wellington Management Group LLP Lowers Stake in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• Wellington Management Group LLP has reduced its stake in Apple Inc. by 7.6%, owning approximately 82.4 million shares post-sale, which constitutes 3.5% of their total holdings.
• Several institutional investors, including Norges Bank and Nuveen LLC, have made significant investments in Apple, with Norges Bank acquiring a position valued at about $46.87 billion.
• Apple recently reported a quarterly earnings per share of $1.57, exceeding estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, reflecting a 0.5% dividend yield.

Wellington Management Group LLP lessened its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 7.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 82,455,046 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 6,794,618 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 3.5% of Wellington Management Group LLP's holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 0.55% of Apple worth $18,315,739,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Burkett Financial Services LLC grew its stake in Apple by 0.6% during the first quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 14,401 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $3,199,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 28.3% during the 1st quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,211 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $935,000 after purchasing an additional 930 shares in the last quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,332 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $2,337,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares during the period. Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the first quarter. Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 62,001 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $13,772,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Finally, TruWealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 2.8% in the first quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC now owns 189,282 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,045,000 after buying an additional 5,120 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on AAPL shares. DA Davidson reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Apple from $223.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $240.00 target price (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Melius Research set a $290.00 price target on shares of Apple and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $240.80.

Insider Activity

In related 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 transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,508,538.40. This trade represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of AAPL stock traded up $4.04 on Friday, hitting $234.07. 55,768,555 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 45,223,864. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.11. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $221.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $212.39. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $169.21 and a one year high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

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.