Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s Largest Position

Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC lowered its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 29,680 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 386 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 3.1% of Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,593,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 25,934.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after acquiring an additional 59,835,676 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Apple by 23,555.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,272,653,000 after purchasing an additional 20,966,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Apple by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $270.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Sunday, June 1st. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $234.39.

Apple Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $201.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.82. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.21 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.32, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.22. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $202.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $220.03.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 167.24% and a net margin of 24.30%. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.53 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.20%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 4,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $941,214. The trade was a 50.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value 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 $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock valued at $42,694,080 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.