Instrumental Wealth LLC Grows Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Instrumental Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Apple makes up 1.6% of Instrumental Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Instrumental Wealth LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,503,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the first quarter worth about $3,026,492,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 23,076.4% in the first quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,584,512,000 after acquiring an additional 9,200,345 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in Apple by 158.3% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 11,532,438 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,977,582,000 after acquiring an additional 7,067,379 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. New Street Research reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Cfra boosted their target price on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. KeyCorp reissued a “hold” rating and set a $247.61 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.76.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $225.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.23. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $222.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $203.50.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.26 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total transaction of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares in the company, valued at $5,223,062.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 24,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,223,062.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 458,619 shares of company stock worth $101,352,630 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.