Ferguson Shapiro LLC Acquires 135 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Ferguson Shapiro LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 20,392 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 1.6% of Ferguson Shapiro LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Ferguson Shapiro LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,497,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 186,336 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $31,953,000 after acquiring an additional 6,454 shares during the last quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 287,606 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $49,319,000 after acquiring an additional 6,795 shares during the last quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 128,916 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,107,000 after acquiring an additional 929 shares during the last quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. Threadgill Financial LLC now owns 10,985 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,884,000 after acquiring an additional 1,452 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aprio Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 37.0% in the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 34,696 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,950,000 after acquiring an additional 9,369 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $220.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. 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 research note on Thursday, May 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Apple from $195.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $196.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $210.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $574,260,512.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 346,270 shares of company stock worth $60,880,196 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $208.14 on Tuesday. 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’s 50 day moving average price is $188.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $184.85. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $220.20. The company has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.55%.

Apple declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.