Weaver Capital Management LLC Purchases 1,860 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Weaver Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 20,515 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,860 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 1.4% of Weaver Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Weaver Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in shares of Apple by 21.1% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 3,380,064 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $787,631,000 after buying an additional 588,427 shares in the last quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Apple by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 36,862 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,589,000 after acquiring an additional 4,168 shares during the period. Nova R Wealth Inc. lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.8% during the third quarter. Nova R Wealth Inc. now owns 34,104 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $7,946,000 after purchasing an additional 595 shares in the last quarter. Zhang Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 0.9% in the third quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 199,665 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $46,522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,701 shares during the period. Finally, Aspect Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.6% in the third quarter. Aspect Partners LLC now owns 2,083 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $485,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. The trade was a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Maxim Group lifted their target price on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. UBS Group upped their price target on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Moffett Nathanson reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $188.00 price objective (down previously from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $245.26.

Apple Trading Down 7.3 %

AAPL opened at $188.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $229.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $232.96. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.08 and a one year high of $260.10. The stock has a market cap of $2.83 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

About Apple

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.