Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC Purchases 112 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 70,930 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 6.3% of Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $17,762,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $219,829,700,000 after buying an additional 93,886,664 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after buying an additional 55,935,105 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 6.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 333,857,500 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $77,542,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,483,787 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $84,779,231,000 after buying an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 25,285.2% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 9,628,864 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,411,260,000 after acquiring an additional 9,590,933 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Apple from $260.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James lifted their price target on Apple to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Apple from $252.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $240.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 179,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,072,269.86. This trade represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 182,451 shares of company stock valued at $40,818,720. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $190.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.23, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.08 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $223.56 and its 200 day moving average is $231.33.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Apple’s payout ratio is 15.87%.

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.