Apple Inc. $AAPL Shares Acquired by Kera Capital Partners Inc.

Kera Capital Partners Inc. lifted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 19.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,243 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,468 shares during the quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,512,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Isthmus Partners LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Isthmus Partners LLC now owns 97,177 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 5,808 shares during the period. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1,800.0% in the first quarter. ROSS JOHNSON & Associates LLC now owns 190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the fourth quarter worth $65,000. Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth $69,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the fourth quarter valued at $76,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on Apple in a report on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $276.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $314.59.

Key Stories Impacting Apple

Here are the key news stories impacting Apple this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s planned price increases could protect margins as memory and storage costs rise, and Bank of America reiterated a Buy rating with a $380 target, citing Apple’s pricing power and supply-chain strength. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports of upcoming AI-focused devices and a second-generation iPhone Air support confidence in Apple’s product pipeline and longer-term growth story. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple’s planned price hikes may help earnings, but they could also pressure demand if consumers balk at higher handset prices. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Apple opening Brazil’s App Store to alternative marketplaces reduces regulatory friction there, but it also underscores ongoing global platform scrutiny. Article Title

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL stock opened at $298.01 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.85 and a 52-week high of $317.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $4.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 36.04, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $289.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $272.98.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $111.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.46 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 146.69% and a net margin of 27.15%.Apple’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 business earned $1.65 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 8.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 11th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 11th. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 13.06%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Deirdre O’brien sold 30,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.35, for a total transaction of $7,661,010.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 136,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,934,433.50. This represents a 17.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Ben Borders sold 116 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.14, for a total value of $34,236.24. Following the transaction, the insider owned 38,713 shares in the company, valued at $11,425,754.82. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 97,875 shares of company stock valued at $24,998,541 over the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Apple

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.