Driehaus Capital Management LLC Has $4.68 Million Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Driehaus Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 116.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,210 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after purchasing an additional 11,949 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC's holdings in Apple were worth $4,678,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Wealth Management increased its stake in Apple by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Wealth Management now owns 22,116 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $3,792,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 12.0% in the first quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 218,770 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $37,515,000 after purchasing an additional 23,511 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its position in Apple by 10.5% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 363,789 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $62,383,000 after purchasing an additional 34,514 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Apple by 17.0% during the first quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 23,718 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $4,067,000 after buying an additional 3,442 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Accel Wealth Management increased its holdings in Apple by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Accel Wealth Management now owns 26,559 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $4,554,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares during the period. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a "buy" rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $235.51.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $228.22 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.54, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $226.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $215.52. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company's stock, valued at $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 three months, insiders have sold 404,040 shares of company stock worth $91,062,512. 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.