Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. Purchases Shares of 5,465 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Alternative Investment Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 5,465 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,151,000. Apple comprises approximately 0.7% of Alternative Investment Advisors LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised its position in Apple by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory grew its stake in shares of Apple by 3.8% in the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Core Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC lifted its position in Apple by 0.7% during the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. boosted its holdings 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 worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Apple Trading Up 1.3 %

AAPL stock opened at $228.02 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $227.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $217.00.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Moffett Nathanson began coverage on Apple in a report on Monday, August 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $211.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group raised their target price on Apple to $236.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Maxim Group upped their price target on shares of Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.51.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares in the company, valued at $111,148,695.84. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was 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 owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This trade 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. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

About Apple

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.