W Advisors LLC Increases Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

W Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 38,336 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 185 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for 5.5% of W Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding. W Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $8,932,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AAPL. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 0.5% during the third quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Apple by 1.3% during the third 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 last quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. grew its stake in Apple by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory grew 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 worth $287,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Core Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Apple by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the subject of several research reports. Moffett Nathanson cut their target price on shares of Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.03.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of Apple stock opened at $243.36 on Friday. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $260.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.68 trillion, a P/E ratio of 40.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $238.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $228.69.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. Apple’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.46 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.