Impax Asset Management Group plc Buys 62,867 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 8.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 848,839 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 62,867 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc’s holdings in Apple were worth $117,310,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Ramsey Quantitative Systems bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter worth about $55,000. Morgan Dempsey Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the third quarter worth about $55,000. HBC Financial Services PLLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 21.7% in the first quarter. HBC Financial Services PLLC now owns 448 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Newfound Research LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the third quarter worth about $67,000. Finally, Emerson Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 27.0% in the second quarter. Emerson Wealth LLC now owns 518 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.60% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $145.91 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $141.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $146.72. The stock has a market cap of $2.31 trillion, a P/E ratio of 24.77, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.29. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $124.17 and a 1-year high of $179.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by ($0.05). Apple had a return on equity of 163.45% and a net margin of 24.56%. The firm had revenue of $117.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $121.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.10 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 13th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 10th. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their price objective on Apple from $153.00 to $158.00 in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Apple from $190.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 12th. Raymond James reduced their price objective on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, November 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Apple from $177.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $166.03.

Apple Profile

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Apple, Inc engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and other varieties of related services. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The Americas segment includes North and South America.