Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA Has $133.60 Million Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. $AAPL

Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA lessened its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 526,411 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 8,678 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 8.6% of Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA’s holdings, making the stock its biggest holding. Nichols & Pratt Advisers LLP MA’s holdings in Apple were worth $133,598,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. Overbrook Management Corp increased its position in shares of Apple by 57.4% during the 4th quarter. Overbrook Management Corp now owns 104,648 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $28,449,000 after purchasing an additional 38,174 shares in the last quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 14.1% in the first quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 24,386 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,189,000 after buying an additional 3,014 shares in the last quarter. Torren Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,178,000. Summit Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Apple by 108.3% during the first quarter. Summit Wealth Partners LLC now owns 34,989 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,880,000 after buying an additional 18,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corp bought a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth about $105,482,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. KGI Securities cut shares of Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $315.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $375.00 price target (up from $305.00) on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on Apple from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $325.71.

Key Headlines Impacting Apple

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 Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $327.74 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.81 trillion, a PE ratio of 39.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.02 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’s 50-day moving average is $304.95 and its 200-day moving average is $277.89.

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

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total transaction of $34,236.24. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 38,713 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,425,754.82. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Kevan Parekh sold 1,534 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owned 13,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,675,650. This trade represents a 10.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 2,924 shares of company stock valued at $825,546 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple 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.