Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Stake Increased by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 4,355,447 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 19,883 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 4.2% of Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,090,691,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% during 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 buying an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the 3rd 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 raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,893,741 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $220.84 on Wednesday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $236.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $234.12. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.08 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, topping 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, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Argus raised Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. KeyCorp reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $243.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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.