Apple Inc. $AAPL is Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC's 6th Largest Position

Key Points

• Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC reduced its position in Apple Inc. by 18.5%, selling 12,320 shares and retaining a total of 54,194 shares, which now represent 3.2% of its holdings.
• Apple's stock recently increased by 0.9% to $232.56, with a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion and a P/E ratio of 35.29.
• The company declared a $100 billion stock buyback program, indicating management's confidence in the stock's valuation, along with a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share.

Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC cut its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 18.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,194 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 12,320 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 3.2% of Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $12,038,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Apple by 25,934.1% in 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 during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 3.7% in 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 during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Apple by 23,555.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,272,653,000 after buying an additional 20,966,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Apple by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $42,918,365,000 after buying an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Deirdre O'brien sold 34,821 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total value of $7,772,047.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 136,687 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,508,538.40. This represents a 20.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets restated a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $240.00 price target (up from $230.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Apple from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $237.37.

Apple Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of AAPL traded down $0.42 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $232.14. 39,382,353 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 55,684,536. The firm has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.23, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.11. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $260.10. 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 stock's fifty day moving average price is $215.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $212.71.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. The business's revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous 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 year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Investors of record on Monday, August 11th were paid 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%.

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.