Skylands Capital LLC lowered its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL – Free Report) by 6.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 283,475 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 18,255 shares during the period. Apple makes up 6.8% of Skylands Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Skylands Capital LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $46,745,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,269,995,750 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $221,753,959,000 after buying an additional 8,734,393 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 116,483.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 569,554,722 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $74,002,245,000 after buying an additional 569,066,184 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 282,749,817 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $36,671,884,000 after buying an additional 2,991,299 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 226,281,368 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $29,400,739,000 after buying an additional 1,417,827 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 14.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 208,655,323 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $27,110,586,000 after buying an additional 25,926,552 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.89% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $178.61 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $124.17 and a twelve month high of $198.23. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $186.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $172.18. The firm has a market cap of $2.79 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.28.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The iPhone maker reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. Apple had a return on equity of 164.92% and a net margin of 24.68%. The firm had revenue of $81.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $81.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 6.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 11th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.13%.

Apple announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 4th that permits the company to buyback $90.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. 51job restated a “maintains” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, June 2nd. Barclays raised their target price on Apple from $149.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Apple from $210.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. Fundamental Research set a $183.86 price target on Apple and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 17th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, May 22nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $198.86.

Check Out Our Latest Report on AAPL

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 15,419 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.56, for a total transaction of $2,753,216.64. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 136,445 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,363,619.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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