Financial Architects LLC Trims Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Financial Architects LLC lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,715 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 465 shares during the period. Apple comprises approximately 0.4% of Financial Architects LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Financial Architects LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC now owns 64,015 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,916,000 after acquiring an additional 1,066 shares in the last quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 7,606 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.8% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,473,224,000 after acquiring an additional 126,210 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 69,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,269,000 after purchasing an additional 2,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 5.2% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. 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 research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Oppenheimer reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.78.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $255.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $234.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $225.91. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $255.65.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 have sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745 in the last ninety days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.