Foster & Motley Inc. Reduces Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Foster & Motley Inc. lowered its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 246,342 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 6,405 shares during the period. Apple makes up approximately 3.6% of Foster & Motley Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $57,398,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 0.5% during the third quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Apple by 1.3% in the third quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $813,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. increased its holdings in 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 during the period. Brown Financial Advisory raised 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 valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AAPL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $239.85.

Apple Trading Down 2.4 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $236.85 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $240.18 and a 200 day moving average of $229.95. The company has a market capitalization of $3.58 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now 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 SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’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 value of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % 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 Profile

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.