Eclectic Associates Inc. ADV Buys 460 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Eclectic Associates Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 30,629 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after buying an additional 460 shares during the period. Apple accounts for about 2.8% of Eclectic Associates Inc. ADV’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Eclectic Associates Inc. ADV’s holdings in Apple were worth $7,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the first quarter valued at approximately $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apple during the 2nd quarter worth $208,000. 60.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $273.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Friday, November 1st. Moffett Nathanson cut their price objective on Apple from $211.00 to $202.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Apple from $200.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Apple to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 59,730 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.86, for a total value of $13,550,347.80. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 489,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,148,695.84. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 15,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,946.53. This represents a 21.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock worth $92,007,745 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $229.00 on Thursday. Apple Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.07 and a 12-month high of $237.49. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $227.47 and a 200-day moving average of $217.40. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 trillion, a P/E ratio of 37.66, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s payout ratio is 16.45%.

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.