Clough Capital Partners L P Acquires 123,060 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Clough Capital Partners L P grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 73.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 289,960 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 123,060 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 4.3% of Clough Capital Partners L P’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Clough Capital Partners L P’s holdings in Apple were worth $40,072,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can acquired a new position in Apple during the third quarter worth $1,890,884,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 53.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 30,235,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,178,590,000 after acquiring an additional 10,471,342 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Apple by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 123,534,393 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,889,649,000 after acquiring an additional 9,411,018 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $221,753,959,000 after purchasing an additional 8,734,393 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its position in Apple by 12.1% during the second quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 80,467,043 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,001,469,000 after purchasing an additional 8,716,964 shares during the last quarter. 57.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Apple Trading Up 1.3 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $150.47 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $124.17 and a 52 week high of $179.61. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $144.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $145.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.38 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.30.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.88 EPS 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 13th were issued a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Apple from $153.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Credit Suisse Group set a $184.00 target price on Apple in a research note on Monday, February 6th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $195.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, March 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.24.

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.