Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 800 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 9.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,080 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 800 shares during the period. Apple comprises 1.8% of Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position. Muirfield Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,116,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its stake in Apple by 88.9% in the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP lifted its position in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth about $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apple during the second quarter worth approximately $208,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL opened at $242.65 on Wednesday. Apple Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.07 and a 1 year high of $242.76. 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 company has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $229.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $220.74.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. This trade represents a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Melius Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Maxim Group boosted their price target on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.68.

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.