Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc Sells 385 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc trimmed its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,593 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 385 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 1.2% of Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,264,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 127.4% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 75,479 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $12,943,000 after purchasing an additional 42,282 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.9% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 128,418 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $22,021,000 after purchasing an additional 1,106 shares in the last quarter. Peterson Wealth Services lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.8% during the first quarter. Peterson Wealth Services now owns 96,257 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,506,000 after purchasing an additional 1,688 shares in the last quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 17.9% during the first quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 79,503 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $13,633,000 after purchasing an additional 12,097 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KFA Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.0% during the first quarter. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 29,304 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,025,000 after purchasing an additional 1,648 shares in the last quarter. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,416,137.76. This represents a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Maxim Group upped their price target on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two investment 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.25.

Apple Trading Up 0.6 %

AAPL stock opened at $229.87 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.07 and a 1-year high of $237.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company has a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.81, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $217.81.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

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.