Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Has $231.64 Million Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT trimmed its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,203,147 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 15,483 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 4.5% of Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT's portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT's holdings in Apple were worth $231,642,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Headinvest LLC increased its stake in Apple by 1.7% in the third quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 53,155 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $9,236,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares during the last quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 132.8% in the fourth quarter. Barden Capital Management Inc. now owns 32,636 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $6,283,000 after purchasing an additional 18,615 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its stake in Apple by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 75,110 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $14,461,000 after purchasing an additional 10,425 shares during the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS increased its stake in Apple by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 4,307,068 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $829,240,000 after purchasing an additional 279,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boltwood Capital Management increased its stake in Apple by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Boltwood Capital Management now owns 37,178 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $7,158,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on AAPL. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Apple from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $195.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Apple from $240.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $207.47.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock traded up $1.17 on Thursday, reaching $214.24. 97,764,747 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 62,952,852. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04. The company's 50-day moving average is $182.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $183.93. The firm has a market cap of $3.29 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.25. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $220.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $90.37 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 148.33% and a net margin of 26.31%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. This is a positive change from Apple's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 10th. Apple's dividend payout ratio is 15.55%.

Apple announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $110.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,377,407 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total transaction of $16,864,085.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,377,407 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $574,260,512.21. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur D. Levinson sold 75,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.58, for a total value of $14,368,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,359,576 shares of the company's stock, valued at $835,207,570.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 346,270 shares of company stock valued at $60,880,196 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.