Kades & Cheifetz LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Kades & Cheifetz LLC cut its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 38,828 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 290 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up approximately 5.2% of Kades & Cheifetz LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Kades & Cheifetz LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $9,047,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Apple by 3.2% during the third quarter. Praetorian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,947 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,415,000 after acquiring an additional 594 shares in the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Apple by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 62,490 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $14,560,000 after purchasing an additional 2,769 shares during the last quarter. Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. increased its holdings in Apple by 15.5% during the third quarter. Waller Financial Planning Group Inc. now owns 17,534 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $4,085,000 after buying an additional 2,356 shares during the last quarter. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. increased its position in Apple by 2.9% in the third quarter. McAlister Sweet & Associates Inc. now owns 30,477 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $7,101,000 after buying an additional 849 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Doliver Advisors LP boosted its position in Apple by 4.4% during the third quarter. Doliver Advisors LP now owns 25,930 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $6,042,000 after purchasing an additional 1,094 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Stock Performance

AAPL opened at $228.28 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $227.34 and a 200 day moving average of $217.31. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.45 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.55, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24. 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 (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its 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 firm had revenue of $94.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

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 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 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AAPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Apple from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.25.

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.