RD Finance Ltd Makes New Investment in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Key Points

• RD Finance Ltd has acquired 4,300 shares of Apple Inc. valued at approximately $955,000, making it the fund's 25th largest holding.
• Several institutional investors, including Norges Bank and GAMMA Investing LLC, have significantly increased their stakes in Apple, with GAMMA's position boosted by over 25,000% in the first quarter.
• Apple recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share, which translates to an annualized yield of 0.4%, with a dividend payout ratio of 15.78%.

RD Finance Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,300 shares of the iPhone maker's stock, valued at approximately $955,000. Apple makes up about 0.8% of RD Finance Ltd's holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest position.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Burkett Financial Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Burkett Financial Services LLC now owns 14,401 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $3,199,000 after buying an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 28.3% in the 1st quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC now owns 4,211 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $935,000 after purchasing an additional 930 shares during the period. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Apple by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. OneAscent Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,332 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $2,337,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Bell & Brown Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 62,001 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $13,772,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TruWealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. TruWealth Advisors LLC now owns 189,282 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $42,045,000 after acquiring an additional 5,120 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. Barclays raised their price objective on Apple from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $217.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $270.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Needham & Company LLC restated a "hold" rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $266.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $238.99.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 34,821 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The shares were 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Apple stock traded down $0.26 during trading on Monday, hitting $239.43. 7,662,460 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 56,457,375. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $260.10. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.11. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $219.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $212.40.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a $0.26 dividend. 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 0.4%. Apple's dividend payout ratio is 15.78%.

About Apple

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.