Fortitude Family Office LLC Grows Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Fortitude Family Office LLC grew its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 154,558 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 5,441 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for approximately 13.8% of Fortitude Family Office LLC’s holdings, making the stock its largest position. Fortitude Family Office LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $38,704,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC now owns 64,015 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $14,916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066 shares in the last quarter. Amara Financial LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Apple in the 3rd quarter worth $288,000. Granite Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 289,421 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $60,958,000 after purchasing an additional 7,606 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Apple by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 6,994,703 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,473,224,000 after purchasing an additional 126,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Investment Counsel LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC now owns 69,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $16,269,000 after purchasing an additional 2,565 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Citigroup increased their price target on Apple from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Argus upgraded Apple to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $211.84 to $200.75 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.52.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Apple Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $244.47 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.80, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.20. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $260.10. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $240.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $231.94.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 160.83%. Research analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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

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.