Prism Advisors Inc. Purchases 785 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Prism Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 16.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,450 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 785 shares during the period. Prism Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,049,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Simon Quick Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 221,895 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $37,991,000 after purchasing an additional 7,829 shares during the last quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 253,604 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $43,420,000 after purchasing an additional 2,789 shares during the last quarter. Sippican Capital Advisors boosted its stake in Apple by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sippican Capital Advisors now owns 7,565 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,295,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN boosted its stake in Apple by 92.0% during the 3rd quarter. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN now owns 5,895 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,009,000 after purchasing an additional 2,824 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Inc. OK boosted its stake in Apple by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 673,278 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $115,272,000 after purchasing an additional 10,890 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on AAPL. Itau BBA Securities upgraded Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $162.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Apple from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on Apple from $158.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Apple from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.71.

Apple Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $190.90 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $175.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.93. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $199.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.93 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.69, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.26.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.37 billion. Apple had a net margin of 26.31% and a return on equity of 148.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its board 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 reacquire up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider now owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,574,531.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider now owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,574,531.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 53,194 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.12, for a total value of $9,262,139.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,768,046.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 371,270 shares of company stock valued at $64,605,696. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple 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.