Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,121,107 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 106,701 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Apple were worth $258,707,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 14,145.8% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,603,000 after acquiring an additional 7,558,826 shares in the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 22,870.6% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 5,590,588 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,302,607,000 after purchasing an additional 5,566,250 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the second quarter worth $834,368,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 6.7% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,909,457,000 after purchasing an additional 3,245,281 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Maxim Group boosted their price objective on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.03.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $245.00 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $239.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $229.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.70 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.30, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

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.