Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Bought by Advisory Alpha LLC

Advisory Alpha LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 13.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 100,976 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,947 shares during the quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $21,268,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its position in Apple by 0.3% during the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 0.7% in the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. grew its position in Apple by 1.1% in the second quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $949,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays cut their price objective on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Moffett Nathanson assumed coverage on Apple in a report on Monday, August 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $211.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.51.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $225.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $227.04 and its 200 day moving average is $215.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.49.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 404,040 shares of company stock valued at $91,062,512. 0.06% of the stock is owned by 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.