Latitude Advisors LLC Purchases 50 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Latitude Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Apple comprises 2.3% of Latitude Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Latitude Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory increased its position 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 in the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the second quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $243.36 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $238.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $229.08. 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. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, 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 transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Moffett Nathanson dropped their price target on Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 26th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.03.

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.