Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Bought by Bellwether Advisors LLC

Bellwether Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 31.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,253 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the period. Bellwether Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 9.0% in the third quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 99,699 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $13,778,000 after acquiring an additional 8,205 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the third quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 1,186,046 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $163,912,000 after purchasing an additional 15,604 shares during the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 22.8% in the third quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 341,871 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $47,247,000 after purchasing an additional 63,530 shares during the last quarter. Herbst Group LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 2.6% in the third quarter. Herbst Group LLC now owns 29,216 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,038,000 after purchasing an additional 727 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gateway Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 91.9% in the third quarter. Gateway Advisory LLC now owns 49,994 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,909,000 after purchasing an additional 23,936 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on AAPL. National Bank Financial reduced their target price on shares of Apple to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 20th. Cowen cut their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Apple from $153.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Apple from $167.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.24.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL opened at $148.50 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $144.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $145.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.94. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $124.17 and a 52 week high of $179.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.35 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.30.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $117.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $121.67 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 163.45% and a net margin of 24.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.10 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 13th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.62%.

About Apple

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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.