Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC Acquires 365 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC raised its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,999 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 365 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 1.9% of Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Gould Asset Management LLC CA boosted its stake in Apple by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Gould Asset Management LLC CA now owns 29,864 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,750,000 after purchasing an additional 3,119 shares during the period. Semanteon Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,162,000. Evolution Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 145.1% in the fourth quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. now owns 5,490 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,019,000 after purchasing an additional 3,250 shares in the last quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 434,160 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $83,589,000 after buying an additional 23,379 shares during the period. Finally, AM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 360,159 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $69,341,000 after buying an additional 2,544 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $227.37 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $3.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 35.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $222.10 and its 200-day moving average is $201.22. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.44% and a return on equity of 147.15%. Apple’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.26 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 5,178 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.50, for a total value of $1,121,037.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 24,125 shares in the company, valued at $5,223,062.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 113,884 shares of company stock valued at $23,723,887. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. Maxim Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $203.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $247.61 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $239.17.

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.