Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 4.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 99,637 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 4,181 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 3.7% of Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th largest position. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $20,986,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Access Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 1st quarter worth about $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP increased its stake in Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $175,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth about $206,000. Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth about $208,000. Finally, Sequent Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth about $214,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James increased their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $261.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Cfra increased their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.27.

Insider Activity at Apple

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,542,136.92. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 191,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,542,136.92. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 517,924 shares of company stock valued at $114,786,399 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Up 1.2 %

AAPL stock opened at $235.00 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $3.60 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day moving average of $225.78 and a 200 day moving average of $208.11.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.06. Apple had a return on equity of 147.15% and a net margin of 26.44%. The company had revenue of $85.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $84.43 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Monday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.55%.

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.