Worth Asset Management LLC Increases Stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Worth Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 24.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 23,794 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,609 shares during the period. Apple accounts for 3.0% of Worth Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Worth Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter valued at $42,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its stake in Apple by 88.9% in the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 306 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP lifted its stake in Apple by 6.7% in the second quarter. Hoese & Co LLP now owns 912 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sage Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter valued at $206,000. Finally, Benchmark Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the second quarter valued at $208,000. 60.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AAPL shares. Melius Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. KeyCorp lowered Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 25th. Maxim Group raised their price target on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Apple from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $205.00 to $212.92 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In related news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total value of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 value of $945,233.10. Following the completion of 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745 in the last 90 days. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ:AAPL opened at $234.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.07 and a fifty-two week high of $237.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $228.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $219.23. The stock has a market cap of $3.55 trillion, a PE ratio of 38.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.24.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 152.94% and a net margin of 23.97%. The company had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.46 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.