WealthCare Investment Partners LLC Reduces Stock Position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

WealthCare Investment Partners LLC decreased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 10.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,486 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 1,085 shares during the quarter. WealthCare Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $2,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Gratus Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 36,829 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $8,165,000 after buying an additional 2,767 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management grew its position in Apple by 2.6% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 583,413 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $135,935,000 after acquiring an additional 14,969 shares during the period. Trust Co of Kansas increased its stake in Apple by 7.2% during the third quarter. Trust Co of Kansas now owns 42,829 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $9,979,000 after acquiring an additional 2,865 shares during the last quarter. Reliant Investment Management LLC raised its position in Apple by 0.8% in the third quarter. Reliant Investment Management LLC now owns 44,787 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $10,435,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, O Keefe Stevens Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Apple by 49.5% in the 3rd quarter. O Keefe Stevens Advisory Inc. now owns 4,168 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $971,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AAPL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Melius Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $245.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Loop Capital cut their target price on Apple from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.25.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL opened at $232.87 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $228.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $218.64. Apple Inc. has a 52-week low of $164.07 and a 52-week high of $237.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.52 trillion, a P/E ratio of 38.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total transaction of $945,233.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This trade represents a 21.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at $736,269,202.80. This represents a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Apple

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.