Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Captrust Financial Advisors’ 2nd Largest Position

Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,934,005 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 85,685 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises 3.4% of Captrust Financial Advisors’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Apple were worth $1,149,623,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,489 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $813,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Verus Financial Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Latitude Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the third quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC now owns 17,236 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,016,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on AAPL shares. Oppenheimer cut Apple from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 20th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price objective on shares of Apple to $245.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $242.52.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the 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 owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’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 approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $233.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $241.49 and a 200-day moving average of $230.96. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $260.10. The stock has a market cap of $3.51 trillion, a PE ratio of 37.02, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.20.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.33 EPS for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 15.87%.

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.