Ashburton Jersey Ltd Takes $15.86 Million Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Ashburton Jersey Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 73,148 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $15,855,000. Apple accounts for about 6.7% of Ashburton Jersey Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 17.9% during the 1st quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 206,455 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 31,278 shares in the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the second quarter worth $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Apple in the first quarter valued at $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP increased its stake in Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth about $206,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AAPL. Evercore ISI restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Maxim Group boosted their price target on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup upped their price objective on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.51.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total transaction of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the sale, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 404,040 shares of company stock valued at $91,062,512. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $228.02 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $227.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $217.00. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $237.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

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

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.