Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC Purchases Shares of 8,582 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,582 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $2,000,000. Apple comprises 1.6% of Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory increased its holdings in Apple by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Core Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lowery Thomas LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $255.27 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.86 trillion, a P/E ratio of 41.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. 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’s 50-day moving average is $234.97 and its 200 day moving average is $225.91. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $255.65.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp cut shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

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.