Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Bought by Assetmark Inc.

Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 12.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,561,493 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 292,651 shares during the period. Apple comprises 1.7% of Assetmark Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $596,828,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 217,010 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $50,563,000 after buying an additional 1,819 shares during the last quarter. Corrado Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Apple by 11.2% in the third quarter. Corrado Advisors LLC now owns 2,595 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $605,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV boosted its stake in Apple by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. Rovin Capital UT ADV now owns 26,933 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,275,000 after acquiring an additional 3,055 shares during the last quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 3rd quarter worth $47,318,000. Finally, Crumly & Associates Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 19,594 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,565,000 after purchasing an additional 826 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, New Street Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $239.85.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $233.28 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.53 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $240.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $230.52. 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 (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 net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.45%.

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.