Livelsberger Financial Advisory Makes New Investment in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $811,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 14,395.4% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 70,700,395 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,119,470,000 after acquiring an additional 70,212,651 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $253,766,929,000 after acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 9,430,190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,815,594,000 after acquiring an additional 5,331,439 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter valued at about $560,388,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AAPL shares. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Apple from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $164.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $208.06.

Apple Stock Down 1.1 %

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

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 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 firm had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 EPS. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

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

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

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 346,270 shares of company stock worth $60,880,196 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.