Wynn Capital LLC Acquires New Shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Wynn Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 32,072 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $6,175,000. Apple comprises about 5.0% of Wynn Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bailard Inc. lifted its holdings in Apple by 2.2% in the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 901,105 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $154,278,000 after acquiring an additional 19,724 shares during the period. Aspire Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 30.4% in the third quarter. Aspire Capital Advisors LLC now owns 18,342 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,140,000 after acquiring an additional 4,279 shares during the period. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 6.8% in the third quarter. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC now owns 42,672 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $7,306,000 after acquiring an additional 2,719 shares during the period. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 3.0% in the third quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC now owns 47,494 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $8,132,000 after acquiring an additional 1,405 shares during the period. Finally, Bouchey Financial Group Ltd lifted its holdings in Apple by 0.5% in the third quarter. Bouchey Financial Group Ltd now owns 266,556 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $45,637,000 after acquiring an additional 1,235 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Apple from $210.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $180.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays raised their price objective on Apple from $158.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, March 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.44.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $189.98 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $199.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $175.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $183.04.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its 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. The business had revenue of $90.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $90.37 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. Apple’s revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.55%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total transaction of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.94, for a total value of $18,094,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,434,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $802,392,181.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 value of $9,244,782.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,068,376.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 371,270 shares of company stock valued at $64,605,696 in the last ninety days. 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.