Parkworth Wealth Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 3,888 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Parkworth Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 3,888 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $974,000. Apple accounts for 0.8% of Parkworth Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp grew its position in Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 23,555.4% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,272,653,000 after buying an additional 20,966,232 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 6.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after buying an additional 20,483,787 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,285.2% during the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 9,628,864 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,411,260,000 after buying an additional 9,590,933 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $202.09 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.02 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $205.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $226.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The company had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.53 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 16.20%.

Apple declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $170.62 price objective (up from $167.88) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp raised Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Oppenheimer cut Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Argus upgraded Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of Apple stock in a transaction 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. The trade was a 17.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $941,214. The trade was a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 over the last quarter. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.