General Partner Inc. Acquires 5,675 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

General Partner Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 7.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 87,075 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,675 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 9.4% of General Partner Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. General Partner Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $14,932,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Conservest Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Conservest Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 16,802 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,877,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Flagstone Financial Management lifted its position in Apple by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Flagstone Financial Management now owns 6,092 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,173,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. High Pines Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Apple by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. High Pines Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,506 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,638,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Asset Planning Corporation lifted its position in Apple by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Asset Planning Corporation now owns 6,135 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,181,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Columbus Macro LLC lifted its position in Apple by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Columbus Macro LLC now owns 11,224 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,120,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $196.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. DZ Bank reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.91, for a total transaction of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $214.29 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $220.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company’s 50-day moving average is $185.62 and its 200 day moving average is $184.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.29 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.25.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The company had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. Apple’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.