Alpha Financial Partners LLC Has $1.46 Million Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Alpha Financial Partners LLC grew its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 8.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,255 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 1.0% of Alpha Financial Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Alpha Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $813,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 0.3% in the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory grew its position in Apple by 3.8% in the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Apple by 1.7% during the second quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lowery Thomas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.7% in the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AAPL. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Apple to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $237.47.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $259.02 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $237.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $227.21. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a market capitalization of $3.92 trillion, a P/E ratio of 42.60, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, 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 have sold 508,170 shares of company stock worth $117,004,745 over the last three months. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.