EP Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 105,668 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) by 8.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,393,418 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 105,668 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 4.4% of EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $192,570,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. London & Capital Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.5% in the third quarter. London & Capital Asset Management Ltd now owns 125,359 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $17,325,000 after purchasing an additional 6,589 shares during the last quarter. AWM Capital LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 20.6% during the third quarter. AWM Capital LLC now owns 11,574 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,669,000 after buying an additional 1,977 shares during the last quarter. Gould Capital LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the third quarter. Gould Capital LLC now owns 26,714 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,692,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Invst LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 4.7% during the third quarter. Invst LLC now owns 59,888 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,409,000 after buying an additional 2,673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Client 1ST Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 8.4% during the third quarter. Client 1ST Advisory Group LLC now owns 10,320 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,426,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. 57.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Trading Down 0.5 %

AAPL opened at $155.00 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $124.17 and a twelve month high of $179.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $146.64 and a 200 day simple 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 $2.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.30.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company earned $2.10 EPS. Analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 16th. Shareholders 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $160.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, February 3rd. UBS Group set a $180.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, March 7th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $140.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $195.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $153.00 to $158.00 in a report on Friday, February 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $168.24.

Apple Company Profile

(Get Rating)

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.