Constitution Capital LLC Sells 37,085 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Constitution Capital LLC reduced its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 49.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 37,337 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 37,085 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 3.6% of Constitution Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest position. Constitution Capital LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $6,403,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $1,713,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 11.8% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 15,511 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,986,000 after acquiring an additional 1,643 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,236,000 after acquiring an additional 872 shares in the last quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter worth about $38,406,000. Finally, Barden Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 132.8% during the 4th quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. now owns 32,636 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,283,000 after acquiring an additional 18,615 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 4th. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and set a $164.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. DA Davidson upgraded Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Itau BBA Securities upgraded Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.71.

Apple Trading Up 1.6 %

AAPL stock opened at $220.27 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $193.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $185.44. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $220.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.37 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.59 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 issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.55%.

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

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total transaction of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Apple news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total value of $951,809.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 29,278 shares in the company, valued at $5,574,531.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 192,355 shares of company stock valued at $34,771,329 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.