Saxon Interests Inc. Raises Holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Saxon Interests Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 2.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 42,959 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,042 shares during the quarter. Apple accounts for about 4.6% of Saxon Interests Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Saxon Interests Inc.’s holdings in Apple were worth $10,009,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Hoese & Co LLP increased its position in shares of Apple by 6.7% during the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $206,000. Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, SMH Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Apple in the 2nd quarter worth $209,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apple Price Performance

AAPL stock opened at $235.06 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $228.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $219.01. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $237.49. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.46 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued 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 0.43%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other news, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a research report on Monday, September 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Apple from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Apple to $236.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.