Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 2,114 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc. decreased its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 28.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,332 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,114 shares during the period. Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $914,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Global Assets Advisory LLC grew its position in Apple by 23,076.4% during the 1st quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC now owns 9,240,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,584,512,000 after acquiring an additional 9,200,345 shares during the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC grew its position in Apple by 78.2% during the 1st quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 6,296 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,080,000 after acquiring an additional 2,763 shares during the last quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Apple by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 19,900 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,412,000 after acquiring an additional 2,301 shares during the last quarter. Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. grew its position in Apple by 387.4% during the 1st quarter. Lloyd Advisory Services LLC. now owns 44,525 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,635,000 after acquiring an additional 35,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lane & Associates LLC grew its position in Apple by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Lane & Associates LLC now owns 19,017 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,261,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AAPL. Erste Group Bank upgraded Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on Apple from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Citigroup reduced their price target on Apple from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Apple from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 4th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.71.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $210.62 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $192.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.46. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $220.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.23 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The iPhone maker reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $90.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.52 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. This is an increase from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.55%.

Apple declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 2nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $110.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the iPhone maker to buy up to 3.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total value of $951,809.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 29,278 shares in the company, valued at $5,574,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,999 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.40, for a total transaction of $951,809.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 29,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,574,531.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 99,183 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.03, for a total value of $16,864,085.49. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 346,270 shares of company stock worth $60,880,196. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.