W Advisors LLC Purchases 185 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

W Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 38,336 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 5.5% of W Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. W Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $8,932,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Lantz Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 8.6% in the second quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,361 shares in the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its position in Apple by 271.2% during the 2nd quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 1,098,251 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $231,314,000 after acquiring an additional 802,371 shares during the last quarter. Crestmont Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 28.9% during the 2nd quarter. Crestmont Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,021 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $636,000 after acquiring an additional 678 shares in the last quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the second quarter. Prospect Financial Services LLC now owns 52,839 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,129,000 after purchasing an additional 566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sapient Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple by 5.6% in the second quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 1,320,049 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $278,029,000 after purchasing an additional 70,145 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Wedbush upped their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 26th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.03.

Apple Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $243.36 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.68 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.03, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $238.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $228.69.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 (DPR) is 16.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company 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.