RFG Holdings Inc. Boosts Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

RFG Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 12.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,807 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,214 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 0.8% of RFG Holdings Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. RFG Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,403,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Drystone LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Conquis Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $63,000. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, Pillar Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $82,000. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total transaction of $941,420.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 4,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $941,214. The trade was a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider owned 15,533 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. The trade was a 22.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Apple from $295.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $170.62 to $188.32 in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on Apple from $250.00 to $230.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group set a $210.00 target price on Apple and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.27.

Apple Trading Up 0.2%

AAPL opened at $209.11 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.21 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The business’s 50 day moving average is $203.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $216.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18.

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

Apple declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to buyback $100.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the iPhone maker to purchase up to 3.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 12th were paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 12th. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.20%.

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.