Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. Has $4.42 Million Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,947 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 594 shares during the period. Apple comprises 1.1% of Praetorian Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest position. Praetorian Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $4,415,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Granite Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Apple by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $60,958,000 after buying an additional 7,606 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in Apple by 1.8% during the second 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 in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Apple by 5.2% during the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $406,099,000 after purchasing an additional 95,235 shares during the last quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC grew its stake in Apple by 387.3% in the second quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gentry Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $876,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total transaction of $13,433,768.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,416,137.76. This trade represents a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,309,126.60. This represents a 24.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 404,040 shares of company stock worth $91,062,512 in the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of AAPL opened at $228.02 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $237.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $217.00. 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 company has a market cap of $3.45 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AAPL shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Loop Capital cut their target price on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.51.

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.