Orca Investment Management LLC Raises Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Orca Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,046 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,116 shares during the period. Apple makes up 8.4% of Orca Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Orca Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $9,331,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Granite Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Apple by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $60,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,606 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in Apple by 1.8% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,473,224,000 after acquiring an additional 126,210 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 95,235 shares in the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA boosted its position in shares of Apple by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 149,219 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $34,768,000 after purchasing an additional 19,670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Apple by 34.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 200,214 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $46,650,000 after buying an additional 51,842 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays lowered their price target on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, KeyCorp cut Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Two equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.68.

Apple Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $242.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $242.76. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $229.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $220.74.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.