Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Acquired by Value Partners Investments Inc.

Value Partners Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,294 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 274 shares during the period. Value Partners Investments Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,001,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Granite Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $60,958,000 after buying an additional 7,606 shares during the period. 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 valued at $1,473,224,000 after buying an additional 126,210 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $406,099,000 after buying an additional 95,235 shares during the period. Bellwether Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 387.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bellwether Advisors LLC now owns 24,349 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,128,000 after buying an additional 19,352 shares during the period. Finally, Gentry Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $876,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Apple from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,309,126.60. The trade was a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Apple Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $229.87 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $237.49. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $227.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $217.81.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s payout ratio is 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.