Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC Trims Stake in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC has reduced its holdings in Apple Inc. by 6.3%, owning 24,954 shares worth $5,543,000 after selling 1,684 shares in the first quarter.
• Analyst ratings vary for Apple stock, with an average target price of $240.80, while recent reports showed earnings per share of $1.57 exceeding expectations of $1.43.
• Apple announced a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, reflecting a 0.4% yield and a relatively low dividend payout ratio of 15.78%.

Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC cut its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 6.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,954 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 1,684 shares during the quarter. Beaird Harris Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $5,543,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,400,790,809 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $311,157,662,000 after purchasing an additional 5,005,297 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 340,164,913 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $84,999,145,000 after acquiring an additional 6,307,413 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Apple by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 104,706,358 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $26,220,566,000 after acquiring an additional 13,137,968 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 34,821 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was 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 owned 136,687 shares in the company, valued at $30,508,538.40. The trade was a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL traded up $4.04 on Friday, hitting $234.07. 55,768,555 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 45,223,864. 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 company's 50 day simple moving average is $221.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $212.39. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $169.21 and a one year high of $260.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.11.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $94.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. Apple's revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. Apple's dividend payout ratio is 15.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on AAPL. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $223.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Apple from a "hold" rating to a "moderate sell" rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday. HSBC set a $220.00 target price on shares of Apple and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 8th. Melius Research set a $290.00 price objective on Apple and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Apple from $230.00 to $226.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $240.80.

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.