BCS Wealth Management Decreases Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

BCS Wealth Management reduced its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 29.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 22,853 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 9,589 shares during the period. Apple accounts for approximately 2.3% of BCS Wealth Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. BCS Wealth Management’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,325,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. High Net Worth Advisory Group LLC increased its position in Apple by 1.7% during 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. Granite Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 2.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Apple by 1.8% during 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 during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Apple by 5.2% during the second quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,928,110 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $406,099,000 after buying an additional 95,235 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHICAGO TRUST Co NA raised its position in shares of Apple by 15.2% in the third quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 149,219 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $34,768,000 after buying an additional 19,670 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AAPL. Moffett Nathanson lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Friday, November 29th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $247.77 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $230.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $222.26. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.75 trillion, a P/E ratio of 40.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a 12 month low of $164.07 and a 12 month high of $248.21.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total transaction of $13,802,497.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 187,043 shares of the company’s stock, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently 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.