Clune & Associates LTD. Reduces Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• Clune & Associates LTD. reduced its stake in Apple Inc. by 4.2% in Q1, selling 1,223 shares to hold 27,916 shares valued at $6,201,000.
• Several hedge funds increased their holdings in Apple during the same period, with increases ranging from 0.3% to 11.8%, and institutional investors now own 67.73% of the company's shares.
• Apple recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share and a significant share repurchase program authorizing up to $100 billion to buy back outstanding shares.

Clune & Associates LTD. reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 4.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,916 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 1,223 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 1.9% of Clune & Associates LTD.'s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Clune & Associates LTD.'s holdings in Apple were worth $6,201,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Apple by 3.7% during the fourth 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 boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 23,555.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 20,966,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 13.3% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Apple from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on Apple from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Citigroup increased their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $237.98.

Insider Activity

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

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock traded down $1.5190 during trading on Thursday, reaching $224.4910. The company had a trading volume of 17,095,958 shares, compared to its average volume of 57,413,074. 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 firm's 50-day simple moving average is $211.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $213.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.33 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.16. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $260.10.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's management believes its stock is 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.