Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC Raises Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 42,484 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 3,575 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 4.9% of Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $10,639,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amara Financial LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the third quarter valued at $288,000. Simmons Bank raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.6% in the third quarter. Simmons Bank now owns 132,641 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $30,905,000 after buying an additional 2,086 shares during the period. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the third quarter valued at $4,972,000. SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its stake in shares of Apple by 6.3% in the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 28,626 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,670,000 after buying an additional 1,695 shares during the period. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 2.9% in the third quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,723,104 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $876,483,000 after buying an additional 103,856 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apple Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Apple stock opened at $208.78 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.12 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.14, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $205.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $226.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.21 and a twelve month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $95.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.53 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is a positive change from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 12th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.20%.

Apple announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 1st that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to reacquire 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AAPL has been the topic of several research reports. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer cut Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Argus upgraded Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group reduced their price target on Apple from $236.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 4,570 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.00, for a total value of $941,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 4,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $941,214. This trade represents a 50.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,486 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.19, for a total value of $933,940.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,233,815.27. This represents a 22.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 191,507 shares of company stock worth $42,694,080. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.