Ninety One UK Ltd Grows Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in Apple Inc. by 8.3% in the second quarter, owning over 2.5 million shares valued at approximately $513 million, making Apple its 25th largest holding.
• Institutional investors collectively own 67.73% of Apple's stock, with several firms making substantial moves, including Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC, which boosted its stake by 573,627.2%.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Apple, with Loop Capital increasing its target from $226 to $315, reflecting a generally positive sentiment towards the company.

Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 8.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,500,633 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after buying an additional 190,713 shares during the period. Apple comprises 1.2% of Ninety One UK Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Ninety One UK Ltd's holdings in Apple were worth $513,055,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 573,627.2% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 205,692,660 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $39,065,374,000 after buying an additional 205,656,808 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Apple during the first quarter worth about $17,472,482,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 25,934.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $133,425,490,000 after buying an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 27.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 68,190,569 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $13,870,795,000 after purchasing an additional 14,651,321 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,199 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.39, for a total value of $1,038,790.61. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 8,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,168,373.35. The trade was a 32.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 43,013 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $257.39, for a total transaction of $11,071,116.07. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $35,181,866.93. The trade was a 23.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 259,121 shares of company stock valued at $65,358,981 in the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Loop Capital raised shares of Apple from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $226.00 to $315.00 in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Apple from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, CLSA raised shares of Apple to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Sunday, October 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $251.47.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $262.24 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $217.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $3.89 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.09. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $264.38.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business 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%. The company's revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

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.

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