Aviance Capital Partners LLC Reduces Position in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Aviance Capital Partners LLC cut its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 269,394 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 3,589 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 8.4% of Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $59,840,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Advanced Portfolio Management LLC now owns 13,815 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,260,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Salus Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $291,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Disciplined Investments LLC now owns 7,166 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,794,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp increased its position in Apple by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Redwood Financial Network Corp now owns 8,720 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,184,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1.3% during the first quarter. Mission Hills Financial Advisory LLC now owns 4,016 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $892,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 34,821 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.20, for a total transaction of $7,772,047.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 136,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,508,538.40. This represents a 20.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Apple from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Apple from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Apple from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $237.60.

Apple Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of AAPL opened at $226.01 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.35 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.30, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.21 and a 1-year high of $260.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $211.38 and a 200 day moving average of $213.15.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by $0.14. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 170.91%. The business had revenue of $94.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $88.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.40 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 11th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.78%.

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.