Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. Reduces Holdings in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC. reduced its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 87,670 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,791 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 9.3% of Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC.’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Mine & Arao Wealth Creation & Management LLC.’s holdings in Apple were worth $22,250,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,426,283,914 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $387,749,545,000 after purchasing an additional 26,856,752 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 604,056,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $164,218,801,000 after buying an additional 6,555,392 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 358,032,517 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $97,031,587,000 after buying an additional 1,866,103 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Apple by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 230,483,035 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $62,659,118,000 after buying an additional 1,379,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at about $52,266,468,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the topic of several research reports. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $375.00 price target (up from $305.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. HSBC upgraded shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $260.00 to $366.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their target price on shares of Apple from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $325.71.

More Apple News

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple is reportedly launching a new device leasing program with Klarna, a major change to how it sells hardware that could support upgrade demand and recurring device sales. Reuters: Apple to launch ‘Upgrade’ device leasing program to spur sales, Bloomberg News reports
• Positive Sentiment: HSBC upgraded Apple, saying it is entering a powerful new upgrade cycle supported by AI and a strong hardware roadmap. Barchart: HSBC Says Apple Is Entering a Powerful New Upgrade Cycle
• Positive Sentiment: Several commentators highlighted Apple’s pricing power, strong installed base, and relative insulation from the AI capex arms race as reasons investors are favoring AAPL over some other mega-cap tech names. MarketBeat: Apple Stock Sends Major Warning Signal as Momentum Hits Peak

Apple Trading Up 0.4%

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $327.74 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $201.50 and a 1-year high of $334.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.81 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $304.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $277.89.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $111.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.46 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 11th were given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. Apple’s payout ratio is 13.06%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 1,534 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.00, for a total value of $421,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 13,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,675,650. This trade represents a 10.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Ben Borders sold 1,274 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total transaction of $369,460.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 38,713 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,226,770. The trade was a 3.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 2,924 shares of company stock worth $825,546. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Apple Company Profile

Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The company designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, software and services. Over its history Apple has evolved from personal computers to a broad portfolio that spans mobile devices, wearables, home entertainment and digital services.

Apple’s principal hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac personal computers, Apple Watch wearable devices and a range of accessories such as AirPods and HomePod.