PFW Advisors LLC Sells 1,598 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

PFW Advisors LLC lowered its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,823 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,598 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 1.3% of PFW Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest holding. PFW Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,257,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in 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 valued at $136,119,470,000 after acquiring an additional 70,212,651 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 1.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 5,331,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at $560,388,000. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Tigress Financial raised 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. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Maxim Group began coverage on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. They set a “hold” rating and a $178.00 target price for the company. Finally, Melius Research raised their target price on shares of Apple from $227.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.83.

Apple Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $208.14 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $220.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $188.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $184.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company has a market cap of $3.19 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Company 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.