Amara Financial LLC. Purchases Shares of 1,238 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Amara Financial LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 1,238 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, valued at approximately $288,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Apple by 20,372.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 94,347,510 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $219,829,700,000 after acquiring an additional 93,886,664 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Apple by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 52,981,808 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $11,160,183,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,807 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 51,765,589 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,909,457,000 after purchasing an additional 3,245,281 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 3.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,619,614 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,291,583,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065,759 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 34,486,195 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,035,283,000 after purchasing an additional 432,140 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value 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. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 20th. Barclays reduced their price target on Apple from $184.00 to $183.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $253.00 target price (down from $256.00) on shares of Apple in a report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.05.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $229.82 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The stock has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $240.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.68. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10.

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 analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio 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.