First National Bank Sioux Falls Grows Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

First National Bank Sioux Falls lifted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 13.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,671 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,772 shares during the period. Apple comprises 2.1% of First National Bank Sioux Falls’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. First National Bank Sioux Falls’ holdings in Apple were worth $3,888,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Apple during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,912,466,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 14,395.4% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 70,212,651 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after purchasing an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 23,076.4% in the first quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,584,512,000 after buying an additional 9,200,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC lifted 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 worth $1,815,594,000 after purchasing an additional 5,331,439 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Maxim Group upped their price objective on Apple from $178.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Rosenblatt Securities raised Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $196.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 28th. One 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $215.71.

Apple Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $221.55 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $221.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $195.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $185.85.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.55%.

Apple announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that permits the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total transaction of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,162 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.22, for a total transaction of $10,188,879.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $84,378,155.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total transaction of $14,368,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 192,355 shares of company stock valued at $34,771,329. 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.