Burford Brothers Inc. Grows Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Burford Brothers Inc. grew its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 72,936 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises approximately 8.9% of Burford Brothers Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Burford Brothers Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $16,994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Apple by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 40,528 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $9,443,000 after purchasing an additional 1,782 shares during the last quarter. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Apple by 62.2% in the third quarter. Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 15,136 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,527,000 after acquiring an additional 5,804 shares during the period. Capital Management Associates Inc grew its holdings in Apple by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Management Associates Inc now owns 35,940 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,374,000 after acquiring an additional 820 shares in the last quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 3.6% during the third quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC now owns 407,584 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $94,967,000 after buying an additional 14,118 shares during the period. Finally, Tarbox Family Office Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 7.8% in the third quarter. Tarbox Family Office Inc. now owns 33,857 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,889,000 after purchasing an additional 2,457 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com cut Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Apple presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $236.78.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $258.20 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $258.21. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $235.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $226.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.90 trillion, a PE ratio of 42.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.23.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm 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 quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.46 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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 paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Insider Activity

In other Apple news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total transaction of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. The trade was a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the sale, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 508,170 shares of company stock valued at $117,004,745. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.