Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Has $73.62 Million Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lessened its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 429,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 14,212 shares during the period. Apple makes up 2.9% of Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Apple were worth $73,622,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AAPL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,119,470,000 after purchasing an additional 70,212,651 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in Apple by 130.1% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 9,430,190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,815,594,000 after purchasing an additional 5,331,439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $560,388,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $196.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $164.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, DA Davidson raised shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.38.

Apple Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $207.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $187.87 and a 200-day moving average of $184.81. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $220.20. The stock has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.27, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.55%.

Apple announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to buyback $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,359,576 shares in the company, valued at $835,207,570.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total value of $951,809.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.