Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. Has $12.17 Million Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lifted its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,190 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 374 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 5.6% of Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $12,166,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in Apple by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its holdings in Apple by 0.3% during the second quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Brown Financial Advisory lifted its holdings 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 period. Finally, Core Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Apple by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value 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 trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AAPL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $237.64.

Apple Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $242.21 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $239.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $229.57. 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 firm has a market cap of $3.66 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.45%.

Apple Company 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.