Vantage Financial Partners LLC Acquires 550 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Vantage Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 550 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 1.0% of Vantage Financial Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Vantage Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,824,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Apple in the 1st quarter worth $3,026,492,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 14,145.8% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 7,612,261 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,603,000 after buying an additional 7,558,826 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Apple by 158.3% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 11,532,438 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,977,582,000 after buying an additional 7,067,379 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 161.2% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 8,759,445 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,502,068,000 after acquiring an additional 5,405,542 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis lifted its position in shares of Apple by 127.7% in the 1st quarter. Natixis now owns 4,632,987 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $794,465,000 after acquiring an additional 2,598,742 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AAPL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Melius Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.91.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL stock opened at $231.41 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $226.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $210.64. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 35.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction 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 $39,542,136.92. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 517,924 shares of company stock valued at $114,786,399. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.