Forsta AP Fonden Has $911.05 Million Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Forsta AP Fonden boosted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,910,100 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 310,800 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 7.0% of Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Apple were worth $911,053,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in Apple by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,910,937 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,116,109,000 after acquiring an additional 422,646 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 98.2% during the third quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC now owns 45,416 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,582,000 after purchasing an additional 22,502 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.4% during the third quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 1,305,000 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $304,065,000 after purchasing an additional 17,900 shares during the last quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the third quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP now owns 184,977 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $43,100,000 after purchasing an additional 576 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 0.8% in the third quarter. Smith & Howard Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,484 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,142,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on AAPL. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. This trade represents a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745 over the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $258.20 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The company has a market cap of $3.90 trillion, a P/E ratio of 42.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $258.21. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $235.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $226.77.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

About Apple

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.