Spectrum Planning & Advisory Services Inc. Sells 717 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Spectrum Planning & Advisory Services Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 19.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,959 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 717 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 0.7% of Spectrum Planning & Advisory Services Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Spectrum Planning & Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $690,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LGT Capital Partners LTD. increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.8% in the third quarter. LGT Capital Partners LTD. now owns 588,840 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $137,200,000 after purchasing an additional 10,370 shares during the period. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Apple by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,724 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $868,000 after buying an additional 358 shares during the period. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co lifted its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.3% during the third quarter. W.G. Shaheen & Associates DBA Whitney & Co now owns 567,566 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $132,243,000 after buying an additional 7,051 shares during the last quarter. First City Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Apple by 1.8% in the third quarter. First City Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,718 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $4,827,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the period. Finally, Princeton Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 1.1% in the third quarter. Princeton Capital Management LLC now owns 139,854 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $32,586,000 after acquiring an additional 1,537 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Oppenheimer reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $236.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.05.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was 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 $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 value of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $238.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $240.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $230.70. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $3.58 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 0.42%. Apple’s payout ratio is presently 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.