Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Montis Financial LLC's 2nd Largest Position

Montis Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,679 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after acquiring an additional 3,492 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 7.6% of Montis Financial LLC's holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Montis Financial LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $24,711,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Amara Financial LLC. purchased a new stake in Apple in the third quarter worth $288,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the third quarter worth $4,972,000. SYM FINANCIAL Corp increased 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 worth $6,670,000 after buying an additional 1,695 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased 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 worth $876,483,000 after buying an additional 103,856 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tradewinds Capital Management LLC increased its position in Apple by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 21,198 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,308,000 after buying an additional 1,779 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on AAPL shares. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $270.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated an "underperform" rating and issued a $170.62 price target (up from $167.88) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.80.

Apple Trading Down 3.0%

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $195.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $205.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $225.95. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. Apple's revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This is a positive change from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Apple's payout ratio is 16.20%.

Apple declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,533 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080. Insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

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.

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