Investment Planning Advisors Inc. Buys Shares of 2,985 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Investment Planning Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 2,985 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $629,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Apple by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,531,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Apple by 7.1% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,146,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,369,852,000 after acquiring an additional 2,474,887 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total transaction of $1,958,850.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 113,884 shares of company stock valued at $23,723,887 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.17.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $228.20 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $222.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $200.19. The company has a market capitalization of $3.50 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.26 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Apple Company 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.