Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Sold by B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. decreased its stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 740,508 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 200,346 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 4.8% of B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its largest position. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $171,027,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PACK Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 4.7% in the second quarter. PACK Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $569,000 after buying an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. GPM Growth Investors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth $11,158,000. Pursue Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Apple by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Pursue Wealth Partners LLC now owns 27,121 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $5,712,000 after acquiring an additional 1,049 shares in the last quarter. Commons Capital LLC boosted its stake in Apple by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Commons Capital LLC now owns 40,511 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,532,000 after purchasing an additional 2,089 shares during the period. Finally, Del Sette Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Apple by 207.2% during the 2nd quarter. Del Sette Capital Management LLC now owns 17,860 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,762,000 after purchasing an additional 12,047 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $244.60 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $240.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $231.68.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share 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%. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 15.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AAPL. Bank of America upped their price objective on Apple from $253.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Apple from $280.00 to $294.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.52.

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.