Financial Harvest LLC Buys New Shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Financial Harvest LLC bought a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 10,151 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $2,542,000. Apple accounts for about 2.2% of Financial Harvest LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Apple by 10.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 584,010,284 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $136,074,372,000 after purchasing an additional 55,935,105 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 6.5% in 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 period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 5.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 363,859,362 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $84,779,231,000 after purchasing an additional 18,224,005 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC grew its holdings in 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 valued at $2,411,260,000 after purchasing an additional 9,590,933 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 6.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 94,942,731 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,121,656,000 after purchasing an additional 5,893,741 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. The trade was a 8.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $733,637,976.75. This 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 sold 187,021 shares of company stock worth $41,760,140. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $263.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays increased their price target on Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Redburn Partners set a $230.00 price objective on Apple in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $234.31.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $210.14 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business has a 50 day moving average of $215.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $229.19. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.11 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a market cap of $3.16 trillion, a P/E ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.