StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. Decreases Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc. lessened its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 5.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,944 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 514 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 1.5% of StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. StoneCrest Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,084,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Hoese & Co LLP raised its holdings in Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth $206,000. Benchmark Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth $208,000. Finally, SMH Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth $209,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.25.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $232.87 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49. The firm has a market cap of $3.52 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The business’s fifty day moving average is $228.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $218.64.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of Apple stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 over the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.