Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases 700 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,595 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 700 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 1.7% of Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $3,401,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. Bull Oak Capital LLC boosted its position in Apple by 252.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bull Oak Capital LLC now owns 155 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its position in shares of Apple by 88.9% during the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Cordant Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 34.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cordant Inc. now owns 678 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $158,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, EMC Capital Management boosted its stake in Apple by 7.3% during the third quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 892 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $201,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AAPL shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI restated a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Moffett Nathanson reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $188.00 target price (down from $202.00) on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of 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 report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $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 own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $242.21 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $239.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $229.57. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced 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 business 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 revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share 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 issued 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 dividend yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.