Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stake Raised by Independent Advisor Alliance

Independent Advisor Alliance grew its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 9.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 952,107 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after purchasing an additional 84,241 shares during the period. Apple comprises approximately 3.2% of Independent Advisor Alliance's portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Independent Advisor Alliance's holdings in Apple were worth $238,427,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $5,272,653,000 after buying an additional 20,966,232 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $77,542,863,000 after acquiring an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its stake in Apple by 25,285.2% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 9,628,864 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $2,411,260,000 after acquiring an additional 9,590,933 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at $941,214. This represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. Maxim Group increased their price objective on Apple to $215.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Rosenblatt Securities lowered Apple from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $217.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Apple from $259.00 to $256.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $235.80.

Apple Trading Down 2.3%

NASDAQ:AAPL traded down $4.77 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $202.09. 59,113,086 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 55,963,045. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.08, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a fifty day moving average of $205.87 and a 200 day moving average of $226.43. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $169.21 and a 12 month high of $260.10.

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

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given 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 of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Apple's dividend payout ratio is presently 16.20%.

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.