Verus Wealth Management LLC Purchases Shares of 6,583 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Verus Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,583 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,649,000. Apple accounts for 1.8% of Verus Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Apple by 10.6% in 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 lifted its position in shares of Apple by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% during the 3rd 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. increased its position in shares of Apple by 6.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,121,656,000 after buying an additional 5,893,741 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on AAPL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 20th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Apple from $253.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $243.65.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $218.27 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.28 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $231.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $233.42. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.08 and a 52 week high of $260.10. 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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