Global Retirement Partners LLC Sells 7,272 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Global Retirement Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 393,824 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 7,272 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 2.8% of Global Retirement Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Global Retirement Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $91,761,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. raised 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 worth $3,566,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory raised its stake in Apple by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Apple by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the second quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $111,148,695.84. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AAPL. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.78.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL opened at $246.75 on Tuesday. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $247.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.73 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.58, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average is $230.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $222.26.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. Analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

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.