AXQ Capital LP Buys New Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

AXQ Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,388 shares of the iPhone maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,099,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Wrenne Financial Planning LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 0.9% in the third quarter. Wrenne Financial Planning LLC now owns 12,897 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $3,005,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 7,159,429 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $1,668,152,000 after acquiring an additional 835,837 shares during the period. Concorde Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 12.4% in the third quarter. Concorde Asset Management LLC now owns 14,723 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $3,430,000 after buying an additional 1,619 shares during the period. First County Bank CT grew its position in Apple by 1.6% during the third quarter. First County Bank CT now owns 44,677 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $10,410,000 after buying an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter worth $13,037,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Apple from $270.00 to $245.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Apple from an "underweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $235.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were 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 $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Up 0.7%

AAPL traded up $1.48 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $204.75. 10,857,378 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 55,960,807. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $202.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $224.69. The firm has a market cap of $3.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $94.04 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.53 EPS. The company's revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.26 dividend. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Apple's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.20%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 purchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.