Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Sold by Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC reduced its holdings in Apple Inc. by 1.8% in Q1, now owning 145,484 shares, valued at approximately $32.3 million, making Apple the firm's 4th largest position.
• Apple reported earnings of $1.57 per share, beating consensus estimates, alongside a revenue increase of 9.6% year-over-year, totaling $94.04 billion in the latest quarter.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share with a yield of 0.4%, and also announced a $100 billion share buyback plan, indicating confidence in its stock valuation.

Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 1.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 145,484 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 2,725 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 4.1% of Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC's holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Lodestar Private Asset Management LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $32,316,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $349,532,608,000 after buying an additional 49,168,843 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Apple by 23,555.4% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,272,653,000 after buying an additional 20,966,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Apple by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Evercore ISI reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Apple from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $237.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Apple Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of Apple stock traded down $0.9810 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $229.9090. 20,787,359 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 57,647,684. The company has a 50 day moving average of $210.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $212.94. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.21 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market cap of $3.41 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.16.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $88.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple's payout ratio is 15.78%.

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

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.