Blair William & Co. IL Has $1.57 Billion Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,277,205 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 107,747 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 4.6% of Blair William & Co. IL's holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Blair William & Co. IL's holdings in Apple were worth $1,571,938,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 80,501 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $20,159,000 after buying an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. BCO Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $213,000. Howe & Rusling Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc. now owns 156,142 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $39,101,000 after purchasing an additional 811 shares in the last quarter. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth approximately $16,879,000. Finally, NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 30.7% in the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 1,201,625 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $300,911,000 after purchasing an additional 281,965 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $733,637,976.75. This represents a 3.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Sunday, June 1st. Citigroup reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, May 5th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $245.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.02.

Apple Stock Up 1.6%

AAPL traded up $3.29 on Friday, reaching $203.92. 46,477,335 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 56,154,463. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $201.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $224.15. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $169.21 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.05 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.53 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is a positive change from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Apple's dividend payout ratio is 16.20%.

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.