Mather Group LLC. Has $47.41 Million Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Mather Group LLC. lowered its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 49.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 203,473 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 199,566 shares during the quarter. Apple comprises about 0.6% of Mather Group LLC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Apple were worth $47,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Access Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Apple during the 1st quarter worth about $140,000. Hoese & Co LLP lifted its position in Apple by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $175,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Apple during the 2nd quarter worth about $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Apple in the 2nd quarter valued at about $208,000. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 61,019 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.20, for a total value of $13,802,497.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 187,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,309,126.60. This represents a 24.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $229.87 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $227.73 and a 200 day moving average of $218.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.47 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.81, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $237.49.

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

Apple Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on AAPL shares. Melius Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Apple from $261.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $265.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $235.25.

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.