Cox Capital Mgt LLC Reduces Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Cox Capital Mgt LLC reduced its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,511 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 302 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 1.7% of Cox Capital Mgt LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Cox Capital Mgt LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,831,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wyrmwood Management LLC increased its position in Apple by 69.0% during the 4th quarter. Wyrmwood Management LLC now owns 169 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Gilfoyle & Co LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 118.0% during the 4th quarter. Gilfoyle & Co LLC now owns 218 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. A.P. Gilfoyle & Co. L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. raised its stake in Apple by 657.1% in the fourth quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Managment Co. now owns 424 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clarity Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter worth about $85,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Itau BBA Securities upgraded Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target 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. One equities research 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.38.

Apple Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $207.49 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $220.20. The company has a market cap of $3.18 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.25. The company’s 50 day moving average is $187.87 and its 200 day moving average is $184.81.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

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

Apple declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,768,046.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 346,270 shares of company stock worth $60,880,196 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.