Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. Reduces Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. decreased its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,454 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 51 shares during the quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,038,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.7% in 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 last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,473,224,000 after buying an additional 126,210 shares during the period. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 69,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $16,269,000 after buying an additional 2,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 95,235 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’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. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on AAPL. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.47.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL opened at $255.59 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The business’s 50 day moving average is $237.41 and its 200-day moving average is $227.65. The stock has a market cap of $3.86 trillion, a PE ratio of 42.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.39%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

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.