Mather Group LLC. Raises Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 6.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 165,145 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 10,131 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 0.5% of Mather Group LLC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Apple were worth $22,823,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 0.7% during 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 buying an additional 8,734,393 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Apple by 2.1% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 237,910,783 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $32,527,162,000 after buying an additional 4,831,418 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in Apple by 8.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 123,534,393 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,889,649,000 after buying an additional 9,411,018 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 1.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 80,739,774 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,097,970,000 after buying an additional 1,155,915 shares during the period. Finally, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its holdings 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 valued at $11,001,469,000 after buying an additional 8,716,964 shares during the period. 57.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Apple Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $152.59 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.41 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a fifty day moving average of $144.98 and a 200 day moving average of $145.33. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $124.17 and a 1 year high of $179.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 24.56% and a return on equity of 163.45%. The firm had revenue of $117.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $121.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.10 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 13th were issued a $0.23 dividend. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $175.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Apple from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 3rd. Cowen lowered their target price 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. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $184.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, February 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $168.24.

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.