Demars Financial Group LLC Buys 704 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Demars Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,203 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 704 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 4.2% of Demars Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Demars Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $8,678,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after buying an additional 18,067,216 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Apple by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Apple by 7.1% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,146,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,369,852,000 after buying an additional 2,474,887 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $1,958,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,469,275. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 113,884 shares of company stock valued at $23,723,887. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 1.8 %

Apple stock opened at $220.69 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $222.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $237.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.26 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.55%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. UBS Group raised their target price on Apple from $190.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.17.

Apple Company Profile

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.