First Business Financial Services Inc. Lowers Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

First Business Financial Services Inc. decreased its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 91.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,058 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 53,225 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 1.1% of First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. First Business Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $7,553,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC now owns 44,854 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,199,000 after purchasing an additional 1,193 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 165,145 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,823,000 after purchasing an additional 10,131 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 291,809 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $40,328,000 after purchasing an additional 30,633 shares during the period. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 129,245 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $17,862,000 after purchasing an additional 383 shares during the period. Finally, Second Half Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 54.3% during the 3rd quarter. Second Half Financial Partners LLC now owns 45,645 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,308,000 after purchasing an additional 16,068 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Apple from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Cowen decreased their target price on Apple from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Raymond James decreased their target price on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $175.00 price target on Apple in a research report on Wednesday, March 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Apple from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.24.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $152.59 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.41 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $144.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $145.33. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $124.17 and a twelve month high of $179.61.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by ($0.05). The company 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%. Apple’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Investors of record on Monday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.