Lazari Capital Management Inc. Grows Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Lazari Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 150,459 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,695 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 14.3% of Lazari Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Lazari Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $31,690,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Apple by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after buying an additional 2,785,807 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,909,457,000 after buying an additional 3,245,281 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Apple by 7.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,146,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,369,852,000 after buying an additional 2,474,887 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,619,614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $7,291,583,000 after buying an additional 1,065,759 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Apple by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 29,515,371 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,061,296,000 after buying an additional 485,873 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $225.00 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $227.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $216.61. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.40 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 404,040 shares of company stock worth $91,062,512. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.51.

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.