Southland Equity Partners LLC Buys 179 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Southland Equity Partners LLC grew its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 131,197 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 179 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 6.3% of Southland Equity Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Southland Equity Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $22,498,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $1,713,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,511 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,643 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $9,236,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares during the period. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 4th quarter valued at $38,406,000. Finally, Barden Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 132.8% in the 4th quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. now owns 32,636 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,283,000 after purchasing an additional 18,615 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 3,377,407 shares in the company, valued at $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 business’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 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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 54,732 shares of the business’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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares in the company, 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 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on AAPL. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday. Itau BBA Securities raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $215.71.

Apple Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $210.62 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $192.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $185.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The company has a market capitalization of $3.23 trillion, a PE ratio of 32.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.25. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $220.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $90.37 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to reacquire up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

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

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.