Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 19.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,327 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 2,061 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 1.5% of Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. Barnes Pettey Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,754,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Apple by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,318,064,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $253,766,929,000 after acquiring an additional 18,067,216 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Apple during the fourth quarter worth $33,912,466,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Apple by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 60,651,275 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,677,190,000 after buying an additional 2,096,360 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 54,702,300 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,531,834,000 after buying an additional 1,067,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Apple by 7.1% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 37,146,325 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,369,852,000 after buying an additional 2,474,887 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson raised Apple from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective (up from $190.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised Apple from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.17.

Apple Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $216.32 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $222.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $199.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.23. The firm has a market cap of $3.32 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $85.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.7 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.55%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total value of $20,644,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.44, for a total transaction of $20,644,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 191,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 8,706 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $1,958,850.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,469,275. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 113,884 shares of company stock worth $23,723,887 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple 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.