Burr Financial Services LLC Lowers Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Burr Financial Services LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 29.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,872 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,579 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 1.9% of Burr Financial Services LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Burr Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 4th quarter valued at $46,868,648,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 25,934.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 60,066,398 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $133,425,490,000 after purchasing an additional 59,835,676 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,395,785,512 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $349,532,608,000 after purchasing an additional 49,168,843 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 23,555.4% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 21,055,240 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,272,653,000 after purchasing an additional 20,966,232 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Apple by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 171,385,531 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $42,918,365,000 after purchasing an additional 20,079,472 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AAPL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Apple from $245.00 to $230.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank lowered Apple to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Sunday, June 1st. KeyCorp upgraded Apple from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $234.39.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total value of $24,184,616.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares in the company, valued at $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This trade represents a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $201.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a market capitalization of $3.00 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.31, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $202.52 and its 200 day moving average is $220.53. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a return on equity of 167.24% and a net margin of 24.30%. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.04 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.53 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.20%.

Apple declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.