Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Lowers Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,704,442 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 62,836 shares during the period. Apple makes up about 3.1% of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $1,096,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Apple by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,361 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Asset Advisors LLC raised its stake in Apple by 0.8% in the second quarter. Guardian Asset Advisors LLC now owns 92,133 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $19,408,000 after buying an additional 732 shares during the last quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services boosted its holdings in Apple by 19.4% in the second quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 59,684 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $12,571,000 after acquiring an additional 9,679 shares in the last quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 10.6% during the second quarter. PCG Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,426 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,985,000 after acquiring an additional 907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signature Wealth Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 4.4% during the second quarter. Signature Wealth Management Group now owns 9,129 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $1,923,000 after acquiring an additional 386 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 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,474,301.68. This trade represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 value of $945,233.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Apple stock opened at $243.36 on Monday. Apple Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.07 and a twelve month high of $260.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $238.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $229.08. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.68 trillion, a PE ratio of 40.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.46 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. New Street Research restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Two investment 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.03.

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.