Wall Street Financial Group Inc. Purchases 704 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Wall Street Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 29.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,101 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 704 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 0.8% of Wall Street Financial Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Wall Street Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $777,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AAPL. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in Apple by 1.7% during the third quarter. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC now owns 64,015 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066 shares during the period. Amara Financial LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple in the 3rd quarter worth about $288,000. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,473,224,000 after acquiring an additional 126,210 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in Apple by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 69,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $16,269,000 after buying an additional 2,565 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Silicon Valley Capital Partners increased its stake in Apple by 12.8% in the 3rd quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 253,743 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $59,122,000 after buying an additional 28,799 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on AAPL shares. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Apple to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley set a $275.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price target on shares of Apple to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Apple from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Maxim Group raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have 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 an average target price of $243.88.

Apple Stock Down 4.8 %

NASDAQ AAPL opened at $227.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.42 trillion, a PE ratio of 36.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.18. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.08 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $237.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $234.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.87%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.