Brown Financial Advisory Buys 433 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Brown Financial Advisory raised its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 31.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,798 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 0.3% of Brown Financial Advisory’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Brown Financial Advisory’s holdings in Apple were worth $450,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 6.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $22,121,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,893,741 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Argus upgraded shares of Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $262.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, January 27th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $245.52.

Apple Trading Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $217.90 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.08 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.27 trillion, a P/E ratio of 34.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $230.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $233.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

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.