Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Sells 14,133 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 509,991 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 14,133 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 2.7% of Miracle Mile Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $118,828,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AAPL. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the 1st quarter worth about $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP boosted its position in Apple by 6.7% during 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 period. Sage Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Apple during the 2nd quarter valued at about $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $208,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.25.

Apple Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $229.87 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $237.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.81, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $227.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $217.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.46 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This represents a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction 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 $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.