PFW Advisors LLC Purchases 2,988 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

PFW Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 12.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,988 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 1.6% of PFW Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. PFW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,087,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Apple by 20.0% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 2,615,701 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $456,728,000 after buying an additional 435,891 shares during the period. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. increased its position in Apple by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 240,628 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,040 shares during the period. Markel Corp increased its position in Apple by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 1,206,990 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $210,752,000 after purchasing an additional 8,450 shares during the period. Camden Capital LLC increased its position in Apple by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Camden Capital LLC now owns 156,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $27,305,000 after purchasing an additional 13,200 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Island Capital LLC increased its position in Apple by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Island Capital LLC now owns 135,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $23,629,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 366,271 shares of company stock valued at $63,653,887 in the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAPL. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, February 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Apple from $223.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays cut their price target on Apple from $160.00 to $158.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, DZ Bank restated a “hold” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, March 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.34.

Apple Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $165.00 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $162.80 and a 1 year high of $199.62. The firm has a market cap of $2.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 25.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $174.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $182.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The iPhone maker reported $2.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.09. Apple had a return on equity of 156.04% and a net margin of 26.16%. The firm had revenue of $119.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $117.99 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.54 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.95%.

Apple Profile

Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; Mac, a line of personal computers; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod.