17 Capital Partners LLC Has $2.17 Million Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

17 Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,674 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the period. Apple comprises 1.4% of 17 Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. 17 Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,172,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AAPL. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its position in Apple by 21.1% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 3,380,064 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $787,631,000 after buying an additional 588,427 shares during the last quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 17,236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,016,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. IFG Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. IFG Advisors LLC now owns 61,051 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,225,000 after acquiring an additional 590 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 3rd quarter worth $7,943,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 38.2% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 204,525 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $47,654,000 after purchasing an additional 56,525 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 4.1 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $198.15 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $222.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $231.14. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.08 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.45, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. As a group, research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.87%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total value of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,072,269.86. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total transaction of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at $87,377,116.59. This represents a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on Apple to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $202.33 to $167.88 in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Maxim Group boosted their target price on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $240.26.

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.