Quent Capital LLC Has $32.04 Million Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Quent Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 137,845 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,483 shares during the period. Apple comprises 3.3% of Quent Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Quent Capital LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $32,042,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Granite Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 2.7% in the second quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $60,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,606 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Apple by 1.8% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,473,224,000 after purchasing an additional 126,210 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 5.2% in the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $406,099,000 after purchasing an additional 95,235 shares during the period. Bellwether Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 387.3% in the second quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the period. Finally, Gentry Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the second quarter worth about $876,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $228.44 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $227.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $217.47. The stock has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on AAPL. Moffett Nathanson cut their price target on shares of Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

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.