Von Berge Wealth Management Group LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Von Berge Wealth Management Group LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,366 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 408 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 1.7% of Von Berge Wealth Management Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Von Berge Wealth Management Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,635,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 206,732,960 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $35,394,751,000 after buying an additional 2,018,010 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter worth $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,119,470,000 after buying an additional 70,212,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. DA Davidson raised shares of Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $164.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 29,278 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,574,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 247,087 shares of company stock valued at $44,016,111. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $210.62 on Monday. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $220.20. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.23 trillion, a P/E ratio of 32.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s 50-day moving average is $192.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.31.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. Research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.