Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust Increases Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust grew its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,026 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the quarter. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lantz Financial LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,361 shares during the last quarter. Guardian Asset Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Guardian Asset Advisors LLC now owns 92,133 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $19,408,000 after purchasing an additional 732 shares in the last quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services raised its stake in shares of Apple by 19.4% in the second quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 59,684 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,571,000 after purchasing an additional 9,679 shares during the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the second quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,426 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,985,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signature Wealth Management Group boosted its position in shares of Apple by 4.4% during the second quarter. Signature Wealth Management Group now owns 9,129 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,923,000 after buying an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Two investment 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.03.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL opened at $243.36 on Monday. 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 market capitalization of $3.68 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.03, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a fifty day moving average of $238.91 and a 200 day moving average of $229.08. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. 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.