Marathon Strategic Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Marathon Strategic Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,705 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 107 shares during the period. Apple comprises about 0.4% of Marathon Strategic Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Marathon Strategic Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $397,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Cypress Financial Planning LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cypress Financial Planning LLC now owns 8,173 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,904,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 4.3% during the third quarter. Foresight Capital Management Advisors Inc. now owns 19,828 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,620,000 after buying an additional 823 shares during the period. Salvus Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 11.5% in the 3rd quarter. Salvus Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,693 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,219,000 after buying an additional 2,755 shares during the period. Platte River Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Apple by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Platte River Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 64,444 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $15,015,000 after buying an additional 521 shares during the period. Finally, Kwmg LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Kwmg LLC now owns 24,734 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $5,763,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AAPL. New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Barclays cut their target price on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

Apple Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $229.87 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $227.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $218.06. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 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.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 over the last ninety days. Corporate 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.