McAdam LLC Raises Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

McAdam LLC lifted its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 78,385 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 4,883 shares during the period. Apple makes up 1.0% of McAdam LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 16th largest holding. McAdam LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $18,264,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AAPL. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Apple by 127.4% in the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 75,479 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $12,943,000 after purchasing an additional 42,282 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its stake in Apple by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 761,774 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $130,629,000 after buying an additional 17,519 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. grew its holdings in Apple by 9.4% during the 1st quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. now owns 105,895 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $18,159,000 after buying an additional 9,133 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC increased its position in Apple by 57.3% during the first quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 41,504 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,117,000 after buying an additional 15,124 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Milestones Administradora de Recursos Ltda. acquired a new position in shares of Apple in the first quarter worth $496,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Apple to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Two 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 given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.78.

Insider Activity at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 1.9 %

AAPL opened at $254.49 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.85 trillion, a PE ratio of 41.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $255.00. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $234.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $225.48.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.45%.

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.