Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Shares Acquired by Rational Advisors LLC

Rational Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 23,313 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up about 0.5% of Rational Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Rational Advisors LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $5,432,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Lantz Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Apple by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $6,266,000 after purchasing an additional 2,361 shares during the period. Addenda Capital Inc. raised its holdings in Apple by 9.8% during the second quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 143,716 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock valued at $30,269,000 after buying an additional 12,848 shares in the last quarter. Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in Apple by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 53,451 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $11,258,000 after purchasing an additional 5,233 shares during the last quarter. Holland Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Apple by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Holland Advisory Services Inc. now owns 8,073 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,700,000 after buying an additional 306 shares during the period. Finally, Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Apple by 2.9% in the second quarter. Key Client Fiduciary Advisors LLC now owns 51,290 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $10,803,000 after purchasing an additional 1,432 shares during the period. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AAPL. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $236.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities raised 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. Maxim Group lifted their price objective on Apple from $203.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Loop Capital reduced their price target 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, KeyCorp cut shares of Apple from a “sector weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.97, for a total value of $24,997,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 389,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,474,301.68. This represents a 20.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Chris Kondo sold 4,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.87, for a total value of $945,233.10. Following the sale, the insider now 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Apple Stock Performance

Shares of AAPL stock opened at $242.70 on Thursday. Apple Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.07 and a 52 week high of $260.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $239.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $229.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.92, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

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.